stancliff's lament

too old to work for wages

no time left to kill

put your eggs in one basket

mind that basket don't spill

you've got to be successful

just to be all right

lest the old man's ghost comes walking

in the middle of the night

spend some years in the business

learn how the big boys play

marry your high school sweetheart

man don't let her get away

and if it don't work out

you can walk away without a stitch

wreckage in the rearview mirror

bouncing down a roadside ditch

it's behind you now

it's behind you now

the worst was over long ago

pat yourself on the back

stand up and take a bow

there's voices all around you

they're yelling go team

you're sitting at the top of the bleachers

staring at a laptop screen

you can't waste a minute

you can't waste a one

the minutes are bought and paid for

at least till the job gets done

they're holding all of your phone calls

but it's no relief

you're staring out the smoked glass window

at the cars down on the cloverleaf

and a picture of a kid with a ball glove smiling at

the lense

and a woman on a sailboat

and all those years you just had to hope they'd bend

well you pushed so hard you bent so far

that they won't either one get straight again