©1986 L&P Berryman
Words & Music: Peter
Recorded in 1988 with the Cornbelt Quintet for the cassette Forward
Hey.
Re-released in 2002 on the CD Yah Hey.
(Poniatowski WI is located about a mile from the point where 90º west longitude meets 45º north latitude.)
Exactly half the way from the equator
to the pole
A quarter of the way around the planet as a whole
It's very hard to find it on a map of county roads
Ridiculously easy on a four inch globe
Chorus:
Poniatowski! Poniatowski! Everybody! Poniatowski!
Magellan's men said Captain have
we gotten very far
We're writing to our mothers just to tell 'em where we are
The Captain said our longitude is fifty on the dot
I don't know where we are but I can tell you where we're not.
(Chorus)
A quarter of the way from top to bottom of our earth
A quarter of the way around the planet of our birth
Speaking cartographically it's not extreme to say
It's the most important 'towski in the USA. (Chorus)
What is on the tip of every schoolkid's tongue
What I mean of course besides a wad of gum
The name of a location every grownup knows
Of a church, a couple taverns, and a school that's closed. (Chorus)
I asked an old cartographer where he would rather be
He mumbled there's a place that's always fascinated me
I'll prob'ly mispronounce it he admitted with a sigh
It's P-O-N-I-A-T-O "duh-BULL-yew" S-K-I. (Chorus)