He Gave Me the Shirt Off His Back

[good4somethingbum]

He Gave Me the Shirt Off His BackI stood there in his field, after that wicked stormI could see that it’d taken, his spirit and his cornNo relation to that farmer, by marriage or by bloodThere wasn’t much left of me, he still tramped through the mudAnd he gave me the shirt off his backAnd the hat off his headIf he’d have had a coatI’d be wearin’ that insteadAll he lost, all he lackedHe gave me the shirt off his backHis wife left him last winter, and his dry crops drank his tearsThough it was hard without her, he gave it one more yearWell, he shot a bunch of crows, off of his tattered fenceLooked at me and somehow knew, what he was up againstThen he gave me the shirt off his backAnd the hat off his headIf he’d have had a coatI’d be wearin’ that insteadAll he lost, all he lackedHe gave me the shirt off his backThen naked to the waist, he walked off to the barnWith the roof tore off the gunshot echoed ‘cross the farmScattered crows from the loft and off wet piles of hayI know those damn things would’ve come back my wayBut he gave me the shirt off his backAnd the hat off his headIf he’d have had a coatI’d be wearin’ that insteadAll he lost, all he lackedHe gave me the shirt off his backNow he haunts that barn in ev’ry beam and rafterCos he joined his wife in the sweet hereafterAnd he gave me the shirt off his backHe gave me the shirt off his back…©2007 Robert George