Locust

Georgie, i can't stop drinking
seems like every time i try i can't stop thinking
georgie, when i was a boy
i would stand there in the shade
of a wedding cake hotel doorway
watching sister with her liquor in a jar
talk to older boys in cars.

Ether was the town where i was born
they pulled iron from the ground
and knife wounds from the port
they built a prison and it tempered in the sun
it rose up off a plateau like the last tooth in a gum
you went there by train and you would never be the same.

they made the blacks live outside of town
the weekend come they'd tear the whole place down
chinese came without weekends at all
and the whites complained the pay was better
shooting them in the war
home may be where the calm blinds
but i could see that they weren't lying.

my first girls old man was in a later war
he drank like a motherfucker, now i know what for
she took my van, put louie in the jack
left a suicide not and i've got him to thank for that
and he can thank our statesmen hosts
although his chances are remote

georgie, i can't stop drinking
seems like every time i try i can't stop thinking
georgie, when i was a boy
i would stand there in the shade
of a wedding cake hotel doorway
watching sister with her liquor in a jar
talk to older boys in cars.