Ready

Ready Kentucky Alt. 629 Pop. 1291

This is where I went to school,
one room schoolhouse
and a spinster teacher.
It’s where I first picked up a tool,
drove a pickup,
necked on the bleachers
when Bleeker’s circus came to town.

This is where I had a job;
carried the pneumo,
down the mineshaft adit,
totin’ that jackhammer, God,
so damn’ heavy
missed that too you know
when the comp’ny shut us down.

This is where I had a life;
married a woman:
‘cross the county line -
took a secondary wife:
we had thirteen children;
gladsome times maybe,
I laid ‘em both in hallowed ground.

This is where I’ll lie myself,
three name tombstone
and a flowered grave.
Nossir, no urn upon a shelf
Just a spadeful of soil
on six feet o’ town mud:
Oh Lord I’m comin’: heaven bound.