Ode to Charlie Parr

when your daddy asked you to play

the record off the top of your dinosaur castle

you didn't know the power in those grooves

until you heard in that song your own heart beating

watching your daddy take on the badger 

with a six pack and a shotgun

Oh Charlie,

you found the tap root

with the teachers scolding

and shaking their heads

when will he ever learn?

Oh, that Charlie!

feels it deep in the bones

and when he sings a song

you know it grows 

from all our marrow

Oh Charlie,

thank you for playing

for traveling all these miles

for ditching out of school

for showing us how to see

that we all have dreams

of scrapping it all

for a sailboat on the open ocean

Oh Charlie,

in your songs I hear voices

of those dead and gone souls

their spirits rattling though you

Oh Charlie,

we wish you a safe journey home