Cardboard

[good4somethingbum]

Cardboard ©2015 Robert George BMI

I got home from Best Buy
And I carried in that big ole box
I was feelin’ lucky
It’s the last one they had in stock

It’s the most expensive thing I own
Prob’ly more than I can afford
Soon my floor was cluttered with Styrofoam
And a bunch of worthless cardboard

I hooked up the cable
Then I switched on my big TV set
Saw a local news show
Do a story on a homeless vet

They said he’d had nothin’ but hard times
Since he came home in 2004
Standin’ near McDonald’s with a sign
Made from a scrap of cardboard

It dropped down to 17
Last night after it got dark
When they found that vet, he was lyin’ dead
Huddled in his shelter in the park

They said a Purple Heart was all he’d owned
Since he’d come back from war
And that unknown soldier’s home
Was made from tossed out cardboard

Well, I turned that big screen TV off
Then I hauled the trash out my door
And I thought of war and peace and loss
Teardrops tappin’ on the cardboard
Teardrops tappin’ on the cardboard…