Unfinished Business
Posted: Wed Aug 01, 2007 6:32 am
Unfinished BusinessWhen Dad opened that wrecking business, it wasn’t ready at allInsulation peekin’ from the ceiling, and no paint on the wallsBut cars were always overheating, in the hell dorado southwestMe n Dad went on calls while Mama, puffed her Kents and watched the deskBut times were hard and cash was tightFive years on that place still looked like an unfinished businessOne day Dad managed to salvage, a classic cherry red FordHe said it just needed an engine, and that ride’d be restoredThen we got the news about Mom, but she still loved cigarettesShe’d hide ‘em from Dad in cubby holes, toilet tanks and the old tool shedAnd for years after we lost MomDad still felt like ev’ry dawn was unfinished businessNow, I nursed dreams of playin’ music, and I’d have left homeBut with Mama gone I knew that Dad, couldn’t run that place aloneThen I started findin’ bottles, in the same cooling ventsWhere Mama used to slip off n hide, her cartons of KentsAnd I hope God’s a kind forgiverCos bourbon sure treated Daddy’s liver like unfinished businessWell, I useta visit my folks, ‘neath a sad old willow’s shadeDrivin’ home I found an old Ford, left along the interstateI towed it back and dropped the block, in my Dad’s classic carJumped in..said a prayer…turned the key, and damn if it didn’t startLooked around at that haunted shopOther than dust and ghosts all I saw was an unfinished businessThen ‘neath the seat I found some smokes, and an old jug of JackI scrubbed the bumpers with that bourbon and brought their shine backThen I poured the rest around that shop, and lit a cigarette fuseGunned that Ford by a midnight moon, flames risin’ in my rearviewbound for Nashville I got away cleanI didn’t wanna die with my dreams being unfinished business©2007 Robert George