A Country Song Writer's Ballad

They told me, stay away from you, because you had a past, They told you that I’d be no good, my future would not last, But your past is all lies, And no one realized, That I could get along Writing songs. Your daddy beat you up at nights and treated you all wrong, Your momma smelled of cheap liquor, before the day grew long, So you went out with the boys, Let them tell their made-up stories, Cause being out all night, Sure beat going home. I just wanted to rhyme my words, and write my thoughts in poems. Teachers always told me, my structure was all wrong. They didn’t say what I did right, Just why I would fail, So after the eleventh grade, I told ‘em go to hell. I met you out late one night at the Diner down the road. Your date ended earlier then the both of you had hoped. I was jotting down some words Of a song stuck in my head, You sat in the booth across from me And this is what was said: “I haven’t seen you round at school, how you doing Joe?” “I dropped out bout a month ago. How did your date go?” “We went to a movie, And I fought his wandering hands, He left frustrated, But will brag about becoming a man. “I didn’t feel like going home, my old man’s still awake, Can I see what you’re writing there and have a sip of your shake?” “A song I wrote for a local band has gotten some air time. A man down in Memphis town wants to read other songs of mine. So before I left for Tennessee to give my dream a shot, Thought I’d write a good-bye poem for a girl I like a lot.” You looked at me with a tear in your eye and said, “I didn’t mean to pry. Didn’t know you had a girl, glad you can give your dream a try. I always liked reading your poems, ever since we both were kids, I guess as the years went by we stopped being such close friends.” You started getting up to leave and turned to hide your tears, I reached out and touched your hand for the first time in ten years. “I know you see other boys to get away from your home, And I never had the nerve to say how I wish I were one of ‘um. But now as I’m leaving here for a first and final time, I’d like to leave you words that say, I’ve loved you all the time.” Now twenty years have come and gone, I’m still glad you came with me, We started out so long ago on a trip to Tennessee, And as our kids start finding out just who they really are, We will not make the same mistake of telling them who to be.