The Beast Among Us

[good4somethingbum]

The Beast Among Us ©2016 Robert George BMI

Well, I had a crazy fastball back when I was ten years old
And I got in lotsa trouble when I knocked a neighbor cold
Mama made me spend the summer with my Uncle Tim
She was sure I’d learn respect and discipline from him
Now, my uncle was a decorated former Green Beret
He lived alone up in the Rockies and preferred it that way

He had a tiny TV set and VCR
Record player and some Stones and CCR
Ammo boxes full of clips and shot gun shells
Copy of Pulp Fiction autographed by Ving Rhames
AR-15 on a rack above his King James
Coupla jugs of shine and not much else

On my first day there he got my bedroll from the shed
Walkin’ down that piney path he looked at me and said,

“The Beast among us
Leaves a footprint in the mud
And the one who saves us
Does so with his own blood”

He said, “Regret and blood’s the price we pay for liberty
Although it may seem I lurk in shadows…shadows lurk in me
Now, your mama wants you on a righteous path that’s straight n true
But a road that paved with useless rules can lead to Satan, too
Let the Good Lord be your law and stand erect against what’s wild
And there’s a chance that life will free the man within the child”

If my wants were simple, God’d grant my wish
So he took me huntin’, taught me how to fish
And he told me tales while choppin’ logs
Said those foggy hills were full of superstitions
There were rumors of a restless apparition
That’d killed some farmers’ cows and hogs

And the beast among us
Leaves a footprint in the mud
And the one who saves us
Does so with his own blood

Now, some had said the killer’s just a hungry grizzly bear
Some said it’s both man and beast with monstrous feet and shaggy hair
Either way my uncle said beware the woods beneath the midnight sky
And sometimes you’re better off to run and live than fight and die
And yet one night when he was asleep I snuck out like a fool
Searchin’ down the rocky moonlit paths for ghosts and ghouls

I saw lights that coulda been a spectral flame
Smokestack lightning from a phantom train
With the devil as the engineer
But those lights were just my mind’s creation
Magic paintings from a boy’s imagination
There was nothing in the night to fear

Though such fantasies are just the fruits of youth
The twisted tree of superstition has its roots in truth

And the beast among us
Leaves a footprint in the mud
And the one who saves us
Does so with his own blood

Well, I sat and listened to a hoot owl singin’ to the trees
And my goosebumps felt his eerie night song clingin’ to the breeze
I thought how my uncle said that life is here n then it’s gone
And the longest summer days start disappearin’ when it’s dawn
O it goes so fast, so folks revere the past and like preserving days gone by
But the King above, is the source of love and is deserving praise on High

Yeah, I sat there musing underneath the watchful silver moon
And I heard a twig snap somewhere in the misty gloom
From the shadows in the woods emerged a monstrous shape
Moonlight on the grizzly’s teeth said there was no escape
And just then another monster walked out from behind a tree
With two giant steps he stood between the grizzly bear and me

In the ground fog there were growls and muddy paws
In the darkness there were howls and bloody claws
As the two beasts fought each other to the death
Then the grizzly bit the monster’s neck and shoulder
But the monster slammed his head against a boulder
And the grizzly dropped and drew his final breath

O the beast among us
Leaves a footprint in the mud
And the one who saves us
Does so with his own blood

Well, the beast limped off and I could tell that he was badly hurt
All he left to show my uncle was a footprint in the dirt
Kneeling in the grass and dry mud he could see that blood was spilled
Buzzards slowly took the bear and no more farmers’ hogs were killed
Though my uncle said to keep my mouth shut when I got back home
I still think about that summer and the mystic seeds I’d sown

But I know that forward vision in the wisest view
And that yesterday is nothing to look forward to
And a maverick’s life and footprints are sublime
Things occur in secret that are better out of sight
It’s in shadow where their deeds keep shining bright
And unfold the future like a map through time

And the beast among us
Leaves a footprint in the mud
And the one who saves us
Does so with his own blood