I did a little research work
And you know I'm glad to say
I found out about my history
On ancestry.ca
I typed my name and there it was
A family tree of sorts
With leaves appearing eveywhere
My family and their warts
There were places on the listing
That I had never been
And the names of the all the people
Well, most....I'd never seen
My grandad married seven times
My nanny married four
My mum was not my mother
And my dad...was out the door
The leaves kept showing up there
Beside each and every name
I sat there for eight hours
I was really glad I came
England, Scotland, Middle East
Nevada and Wales Too!
It seemed that all my family
Moved when the rent was due
I had cousins in Zimbabwe
I had cousins in Peru
They were scattered all through Italy
There were some in China too.
I learned things that I never knew
Tales of family and their kids
I  learned of all their countries
And of all the things they did
Four hundred names in all I saw
And each name had a leaf
I didn't know we were that big
It was truly beyond belief
The pictures too were something else
People, places now long gone
There were photos too of Mexico
And my dear old Uncle Juan
Tomorrow, though I  will sit down
And I'll do this all again
But this time I will make **** sure
That I don't forget the "n".

It's not a long walk from the chapel to the bench

It's a peaceful walk along the gravel trail

You can look out in the distance, past the cliffs out to the sea

And on most days you can even see a sail

There's a gentle scent of heather on the trail as you walk by

It's so calming as it works upon my mind

I've seen so many places as I've travelled on this earth

And this one is one time has left behind.

There's a small tree standing near the cliff just a little  further up

It has blossoms that blow down onto the shore

You can sit by it and wonder as the blossoms filter down

How much beauty can one's senses yet endure?

The grass is green as ever, like it's painted and not grown

But it smells just as fresh as fresh can be

With all these scents and visions here impacting on my mind

And this view that's just a beach and the blue sea

There's no one else around here as I sit silent on the bench

And that's nice for it gives us time to talk

There's birds out in the distance making noises in the air

And I can listen as they fly about and squak

The flowers by the path edge almost hide among the ferns

You can see them but you're not so sure they're there

The grounds are so pure perfect, that you can't believe their real

They are something, in a place so truly rare,

You can hear music in the background from the Church back up the path

At a volume that just says "I am here"

It's an extra added bonus to this sweet pastoral scene

Like Brigadoon, I feel soon  will disappear

The fog is rolling in now and the tide is coming too

There's clouds there and I haven't got much time

But, I'll stay a little longer sitting quiet on the bench

To not share this with another truly is a crime,

I think I'll take my leave now and start on out for home

It's really nice here and I know you'd like the view

I'll be back again tomorrow to chat some more again

All that's missing is sharing this with you

So, I'll leave these garden flowers on your stone here by the bench

They're for you dear, now I hear the waves crash on the shore,

We will speak again tomorrow when I come by once again

For dear I miss you and  I will forever more.

To set a goal and be "class clown"
Is not something good, I'm stating
I was the one who wrote his words
I was the "class clown in waiting"

A yard stick and a winter toque
A voyaguer I now was
To inherit a new character
As I aged, became a loss

Was bullying  the reason for
Hiding behind a mask
Or was it something deeper
That made me take this task

A true class clown has no regrets
Of what they say or do
Their only goal is laughter
And that they'll get from you

Attention seeking misfits
Not in my book, there was no way
You couldn't be a misfit
And say what they would say

A true "class clown"'s an artist
Knowing when to make a scene
Knowing when a situation
Needs a lift, or at least a lean

Voices with strange accents
Silly faces set the stage
You get the class all laughing
While the teacher fumes with rage

Move on from the "class clown" name
And pursue it with a crowd
Do you really crave attention?
Do you want the laughter loud?

Or were you starved for some attention
Something you never got at home
Were you troubled as a child
Did it cause your mind to roam?

Were you deficient in your memory?
Couldn't handle work at school?
Or did you really crave the laughter?
Because on stage you could be cool

I envy people who were clowns
There were many in my life
To just be free with who they were
To dance upon the knife

I never was the top banana
I was always second, on the side
I always worked well as the set-up
But I came along and rode the ride

just going sideways
won't get you to the top
you'll meet others going sideways
and at some point you'll just stop

really, going sideways
means at the bottom you must be
i can move you on from sideways
if you'll just listen to me

it's time to make a change now
time to make a change
you don't exactly know how
but, it's time to make a change
going sideways gets you nowhere
so, it's time to rearrange
so, hang on tight
it's time to make a change
rearrange your life and make a change

do something different
that you have never done
go on out...just somewhere
and try and have some fun

increase your interactions
maybe even try to smile
instead of always driving
maybe go and walk a mile

it's time to make a change now
time to make a change
you don't exactly know how
but, it's time to make a change
going sideways gets you nowhere
so, it's time to rearrange
so, hang on tight

you'll find others going sideways
so, grab them for the ride
it's better moving upwards
instead of side to side

your life is an adventure
and you'll find out you will grow
if you switch the sideways shift
and upwards choose to go

it's time to make a change now
time to make a change
you don't exactly know how
but, it's time to make a change
going sideways gets you nowhere
so, it's time to rearrange
so, hang on tight

Daddy always said I was never gonna make it
Never gonna leave this town
Daddy always said to just go on and fake it
Never mind the cap and gown

Daddy always said there's no way out but dieing
Never gonna leave this town
Daddy always said there's no truth only lieing
No way up, there's only down

Daddy always said
Daddy always said

Work real hard and still you will go nowhere
Do your best, but this is where you'll die
Work real hard, but still you're getting nowhere
Ask yourself, why do I even try
Daddy always said

Daddy always said that school is just for losers
Never gonna leave this town
Daddy always said, there's no lovers just abusers
This place is gonna wear us down

Daddy always said, that I have no direction
Never gonna leave this town
Daddy always said, I was a waste of an *******
Never gonna leave this town

Daddy always said
Daddy always said

Work real hard and still you will go nowhere
Do your best, but this is where you'll die
Work real hard, but still you're getting nowhere
Ask yourself, why do I even try
Daddy always said

Daddy always said, to just follow the leader
Never gonna leave this town
Daddy always said, the town's  a monster and we feed her
Never gonna leave this town

Daddy always said, that we were both the same
Never gonna leave this town
Daddy always said, I was just a number not a name
And that is why I shot him down

Daddy always said
Daddy always said

Work real hard and still you will go nowhere
Do your best, but this is where you'll die
Work real hard, but still you're getting nowhere
Ask yourself, why do I even try
Daddy always said
Daddy always said
Daddy always said
Daddy always said....

I must have missed the memo
Lost the note or dropped a call
I don't remember when you said it
I don't remember it at all

You said it was important
I knew that this was true
I just could not quite remember
The bride to be was you

I knew I had to be there
I vaguely knew we booked a room
But, if I didn't know the first part
Then I sure wasn't the groom

I must have missed the memo
Lost the note or dropped a call
I don't remember when you said it
I don't remember it at all

I knew we'd seen the doctor
Can't remember just what for
I didn't know you'd had the baby
Until you both came through the door

I was sure I would remember
The second time the baby came
I even went to down to the doctor
but, could not quite get your name

I must have missed the memo
Lost the note or dropped a call
I don't remember when you said it
I don't remember it at all

Two kids, and I had missed them
Que Sera, what will be will be
But, I sure do not remember
When you popped out number three

As time went by so quickly
I missed birthdays and some games
But, I always knew the children
Had completely different names

I must have missed the memo
Lost the note or dropped a call
I don't remember when you said it
I don't remember it at all

They've grown, the house is empty
There is only you and me
I remember when it bustled
With two kids...oh, sorry ...three

I came home the house was empty
Just the tv and a chair
I knew something must be missing
I didn't know what wasn't there

I know you'll tell me things tomorrow
Things I should have done today
But, I just can't help but wonder
why is all our stuff away?

I'm twenty seven years old
Not, old by any standard
But, in my world...I'm seven
Seven years removed from an IED
Seven years away from the day that changed me
Seven years into my new life
We were on a routine mission
If you can call anything in Khandahar
routine
Convoy escort, some press folks
A country singer and his band
And us....always us
We were Military Police
Bringing 'em in, taking 'em home
there we were,
Same trip, same road
same barren landscape
same potholes
same, same, same
Until November 4th, 2005
Nothing has been the same since then
I'm a Sargeant, Military Police
William Blankenship
Fort Hood, Texas...just a kid...until
We were on Operation Squire
routine....all routine
The first humvee hit an IED
flipped right in front of us
the bus of civilians, stopped
radio chatter like mad
Rocket fire took out the Stryker LAV
Blew it to bits
No survivors
We were pinned down
We didn't return fire
Couldn't....didn't know where to
And had to get the civilians to safety
We were only 2 miles from base
LAVs were on the road immediately
I don't remember much about it
Just, that it was routine
Started with the headaches
took about a month
Then, the nightmares
Sent me back home to get over it
To a Veterans Hospital in Texas
Still saw the humvee flip
Heard the screams
Saw the fire, and watched the explosion behind
And I wasn't sleeping anymore
Couldn't handle bright lights for a time
Still can't, but not as bad
Doctors said it was PTSD
I said, "you think?"
What else could it be
Two years they kept me in there
Two years I saw them die
Then...they hooked me up with a service dog
New program they said
He'd keep me relaxed
I couldn't take care of myself
And now, they want me to have a dog
I said, I'd try it...but no guarantees
Said his name was Squire
funny....I knew that name from somewhere
But, couldn't remember where
Big, oafish, Newf he was
Like a small fridge with hair
And big, brown eyes
Squire....
First day he just sat and looked at me
Waited until I started to move
And he moved with me
Came over, and pushed his head under my hand
It's been that way ever since
I move, he moves
I eat, he eats three times as much
We bonded pretty quick
I still get the dreams,
but, Squire knows and he's there
Under my hand, calming me down
That's all he does, calms me down
He doesn't take away the dreams
But, he helps
I don't know how
But, he helps
They still die, and I still scream
But, not as often
Just routine....

It was up in Minnesota
or was it South Dakota
It doesn't matter
we know how the story starts

It's friday, time to party
Some girl comes in dressed all tarty
With a body
That could break a thousand hearts

There's gonna be a storm tonight
A cat fight's on the way
You just hold on when it all starts up
And then you clear the way
You just know it's gonna happen
Something bad is in the air
Just grab your beer and hold it
Just watch the nails and flying hair

All the eyes were on her
You knew she was a goner
You could feel the tension
And hear the nails extract

In jeans of lace and denim
With perfect slits cut  in 'em
You knew that she was hunting
that's a fact

There's gonna be a storm tonight
A cat fight's on the way
You just hold on when it all starts up
And then you clear the way
You just know it's gonna happen
Something bad is in the air
Just grab your beer and hold it
Just watch the nails and flying hair

The band played loud and raucus
As the bar's all female caucus
Watched her close
As she went toward the bar

You could tell that this girl's reason
Was to hunt the men in season
And she set to take
the first one to her car

There's gonna be a storm tonight
A cat fight's on the way
You just hold on when it all starts up
And then you clear the way
You just know it's gonna happen
Something bad is in the air
Just grab your beer and hold it
Just watch the nails and flying hair

when the crowd split like the Nile
And there standing with a smile
was the girl of the
man this girl had claimed

Well, the bottles started flying
And though the bouncers all were trying
The fight broke out
Between the two I named

There's gonna be a storm tonight
A cat fight's on the way
You just hold on when it all starts up
And then you clear the way
You just know it's gonna happen
Something bad is in the air
Just grab your beer and hold it
Just watch the nails and flying hair

The cops broke up the rumble
Amid the debris and the crumble
Our combatants were
off to jail that night

Tomorrow they would be found
Back and out of impound
At another bar
And in another fight

So, It may be Minnesota
or down in South Dakota
But, no one cares
We all know how the game is played

So, when you feel a storm brew
And you know it won't involve you
Grab your beer
And watch...your night is made.

I think I loved you most the winter your heating was broken
And we’d stay inside all morning
Pretending to complain that we couldn’t get out of bed
Our clothes becoming little islands on the floor,
Ones that we could not quite find the courage to visit

Your hand stayed glued to my hip,
Your breath warming my shoulder
Like a long drag of whiskey
That kind that had a home so far away,
In a glass bottle on top of your refrigerator.
The one that would not be opened
Until that fateful day in February,
When everything went wrong

And on that unbearable night
When you joked that you’d freeze to death if I left you
There was a long silence
Like it might be true.

Now it’s warm enough
That I show too much skin when sitting in bars
And you avoid me like the plague,
Whispering in any girl’s ear that’s near to you
Every time you see me watching out of the corner of your eye

We should have stayed inside when the ice began to melt
Because I think
When those doors opened and we finally ventured outside
The world had changed,
And so had you and I.

Two kids
watching life go by
while learning
how to live it
moving slow
but learning fast
blink and
you will miss it

same two kids
ten years on now
still learning
and advancing
less watching
life as it moves on
but, a little
more romancing

holding hands out on the porch
drinking sweet tea too
knowing eyes are watching us
and everything we do
always must be proper
on the swing with you at night
they're watching us hold hands with one
while the other's out of sight

married now
and it's twenty years
since we
first sat out here
still watching life
and time pass by
holding hands
tea switched for beer

we've two kids
the house
is ours
thirty years
since we first sat
we're now the age
our parents were
sitting exactly
where we're at

holding hands out on the porch
drinking sweet tea too
knowing eyes are watching us
and everything we do
always must be proper
on the swing with you at night
they're watching us hold hands with one
while the other's out of sight


we've been married
forty years
we still sit
watching time pass
funny how
the simple things
stay a constant
from the past

fifty years now
we're still here
and just like it
used to be
we're still sitting
holding hands
still being watched
by grandkids three

holding hands out on the porch
drinking sweet tea too
knowing eyes are watching us
and everything we do
always must be proper
on the swing with you at night
they're watching us hold hands with one
while the other's out of sight


nothing changes
still the same
being watched
just like before
the house is now
our daughters
and the grandkids
number four

some days
we're still the
same two kids
moving slow
and learning fast
we don't watch
time go by no more
we close our eyes
and watch the past


still.....holding hands out on the porch
drinking sweet tea too
knowing eyes are watching us
and everything we do
always must be proper
on the swing with you at night
they're watching us hold hands with one
while the other's out of sight