CHAPTER THIRTEEN

My story begins at a rest stop
On the way from Houston to home
Well accidents happen in road weary fashion
When you're parked on the side of the road
Especially parked on the side of the road

Chapter Two was set in my first home
Big brother was knocking me 'round
I grabbed a big stick you know, a lesson learned quick you know
And drove his ass into the ground
I never helped him up off of the ground

Chapter Three I was called to the torah
Singing prayers to a god I don't know
Being stretched to a man in phonetical clamor
Thirteen but not ready to grow

Chapter Four reads much like a whirlwind
Imagination which uprooted trees
I was taught to respect my mind's hurricane depth
And shown words could blow soft like the breeze
And that expression was calming release

Chapter Five began it was wartime
It was Dad that old fascist 'gainst me
I fought with a passion sincere and irrational
Didn't know it was work to be free
I'm not sure I deserved to be free

Chapter Six began with a soft kiss
Scared to death my young manhood might show
Not knowing where hands went or where exactly my brain went
And feeling my will weren't my own

Chapter Seven was eighteen years coming
Five friends, an oasis of joy
Free easy starts and a junk sculpture garden
Life's bounty turned loose to enjoy

Chapter Eight diverged in a dark woods
The road less traveled was mine
Hoping for better than school and the ladder
And dreaming I could live just for time
With no other signposts but time

Chapter Nine was a bird with gold feathers
Wrapped me up in her wings as we flew
She showed me the charts and a place in my heart
Where the flowers are always in bloom
I could always go see them in bloom

Chapter Ten was a hard lesson learning
That the heart and the mind ain't the same
That the same flames that light you can reach up and bite you
If you haven't the skills of the game
I'm still learning the skills of the game

Chapter Eleven is owning my shadow
Who creeps with me there on the floor
As cold as it felt to me in the mirror that love held to me
As I ran in a chill from my core
From the cracks and the fears in my core

Chapter Twelve is starting tomorrow
I don't know but the pages go on
There's no use in thinkin' cause Destiny's ink pen
Always falls where it seems to belong