straight talkin' whiskered man one stop 33

straight talkin’ whiskered man one stop 33 i walked into the bar room just to hear the sound pulled way back on the wooden stool and set my body down spilled vodka in my orange juice ‘twas flavor for my soul an’ a stranger sat down next to me an’ said, “man, your troubles show.” he was a straight talkin’ whiskered man never said his name but he set me up with another round of liquid lovin’ sane he pulled a guitar from the side of him and laid his troubles down as he sang old songs of love gone wrong on th’ streets of every town we took the rails through chicago and on up to smokey mount from the eastern coast to the western shore was more stops than i could count and then at last he looked at me and said, “friend, where have you been?” i looked at him through a wasted mind and wanted to ask him ‘when’? but i knew it didn’t matter ‘cause my days were all the same countin’ th’ thick glass bottles of my liquid lovin’ sane he sang a song i’d never known but now i know it well ‘cause it was my path to the outer rim of my liquid lovin’ hell he said, “don’t you count on nobody ‘cause nobody knows your name an’ if you smile and walk away from these bar room doors that’s how it will remain always remember who you are and never forget where you’ve been so when the mirror takes a close up shot it will reflect to you a friend” well, i smiled at him as he walked away leaving black coffee in front of me and tears that ran across my mind made it so easy for me to see i’d met a man who had an outstretched hand like the man from galilee who walked from shore to distant shore jus’ settin’ broken people free he was a straight talkin’ whiskered man who never said his name but he set me up with another round that put me right back in th’ game… so i sang. "jesus, you walked on th' water an' lord, you healed th' blind an' now i will never walk alone, thanks for bein' a friend of mine." © tolbert