Divide Marker: A Line Through the Square

Lyrics

You walk the Square on a Tuesday.
You're thinking of lunch, or the train.
You don't feel the tilt of the world under your feet.
You don't know you're standing on a knife's edge.

Past the doors of the Brick Store, past the chatter from the patios.
Look to the lawn of the Old DeKalb County Courthouse.
There, by the roots of a patient oak,
not a monument, not a statue.
Something small.
Something flat and greening in the Georgia humidity.
Most people miss it.
Their children run right over it, chasing a pigeon.

But kneel down. Trace the letters with your finger.
Cool bronze on a warm day.
It says: "WATERSHEDS OF THE ATLANTIC OCEAN..."
"...AND THE GULF OF MEXICO..."
"...DIVIDE ON THIS RIDGE."
Right here.
A line drawn by God, transcribed in metal.
The great, silent argument of the continent, settled in the grass.

Consider the summer storm that broke an hour ago.
Picture one drop of rain striking the northern edge of this plaque.
It scurries for a gutter, finds a storm drain,
and begins the long journey down the Chattahoochee, to the Atlantic sea.
Another drop, a brother to the first, lands just inches south.
It's bound for the Ocmulgee, for the Gulf.
Two destinies, decided by a hair's breadth on Ponce de Leon.

So you kneel down. You trace the letters with your finger.
Cool bronze, slick with rain.
It says: "WATERSHEDS OF THE ATLANTIC OCEAN..."
"...AND THE GULF OF MEXICO..."
"...DIVIDE ON THIS RIDGE."
Right here.
A line drawn by God, transcribed in metal.
The great, silent argument of the continent, settled in the grass.

A man named Francis Smith, they say, wanted us to see.
To understand the invisible spine we walk along every day.
So you can stand here now, if you'd like.
Place one foot in the world of the Atlantic.
The other in the humid breath of the Gulf.
And wonder about all the other lines,
the other divides,
we cross without knowing.

The words are getting worn now.
Polished by a thousand passing shoes.
The ridge remains.
The water still chooses.
And the bronze keeps its quiet counsel,
right here... on the Square.