For Papa (Thank You)

The rain is falling harder and the thunder shakes the walls.
There's a longing in my bones to take a drive.
There's just one place I want to go that always seems to make me happy.
The only thing is it is one expensive ride.


Nine hundred miles away is the town in which I was raised
Beneath that summer sun and days spent in those fields.
Took 2 long years of labor just to work the land to be able
To grow crops, picking rocks out of the dirt my Papa tilled.


Oh God, how I used to hate it!  Sweating in that summer heat.
Thinking why do I have to do this everyday?
As I cursed and gnashed my teeth, I worked from dawn to dusk
Planting trees, chopping wood, and not getting paid.


So I said to my grandfather, "I'm only ten years old!
Why do I have to work?  I want to play!"
He said, "You've got a roof over your head and you've got food upon the table.
We work for what we have and that's your pay."


He really pissed me off!  But I worked that goddamn land.
You wouldn't even recognize the place today.
What once was a dusty hayfield, within six years was crops and gardens.
Deer were coming to the peas to nightly graze.


Then I moved out here to Texas.  And the years just started flying.
The kid I was grew up into a man.
I went home last year to see them and it damn near broke my heart.
With their health, they couldn't keep up with the land.

The orchard was still growing, but the weeds had taken over
Every patch of flowerbed I helped my Granny lay.
And as I pulled up that old driveway and I took that little corner,
I saw her favorite tree had started to decay.


I thought, what happened to this place? I worked all those years to make it
Into what they both envisioned in their heads.
Now it's all just gone to nothing.  Wasted time to make it perfect.
They just let it go the second that I left.


But looking at it now, I was so wrong from the start.
I put myself first in every single thing I did.
So I called up my dear Papa.  And said,  "To me you were my father.
And I was just a spoiled ass stupid kid."


He said, "You're right.  I'll give that to you.  You were always into trouble.
Fighting, yelling, and being a little shit.
But you were always real respectful.  And you work hard for what you want."
I said, "It's because of you I turned out how I did."


Thinking back about those long days, all the blisters, all the sweat,
And all the work I had to do before day's end.
I'd give anything to go back to that time when I was angry,
And I wish that I could do it all again.