An Ode to Lonesome Jack

In a far off draw on a ledge of black,
In a desert so hot it was called out back,
In a kingdom of sorts that was just a shack;
lived a man of rags, called Lonesome Jack.

Quiet and shy with a permanent squint,
He walked in shadows where ever he went,
Blessed the air with his terrible scent;
But a warning he gave, was a warning he meant.

A lifetime friend he never had,
Most just thought it's because he's bad,
His life was bitter and very sad;
He'd given his love to a world gone mad.

He lost his dad in a foreign war,
No way of knowing what the fight was for,
Just kept on loving with a dream for more;
Freedom and peace was the final score.

He walked the streets with his head held high,
Proud of his country but he didn't know why,
To young to vote but not to die;
When the draft board called, he was willing to try.

He was sent to a land beyond the sea,
Where he learned to kill for victory,
Said my friends are dead but why not me?
Now his dreams are hate and misery.

He came back home to begin again,
The dreams were worse, he'd lost his grin,
He ask for help for the shape he was in;
But they sent him to church to repent his sin.

I guess it was then that Jack first cracked,
It was their damned war that he had backed,
It was not his fault their terms had lacked;
So he moved his hell to a run down shack.

Hell's not right, it's a word we use,
To understand hell you have to give up booze,
When Jack first drank, he drank to lose;
Then heat and the desert gave jack the news.

Bad dreams and hate had left him lame,
He tried and failed their pitiful game,
He lived alone to bear their shame;
As the world gave him, he'd give the same.

Out back hot where the birds don't fly,
Where you guzzle your drink, but swallow it dry,
Where sweat don't show and you wonder why;
This out back hot won't let you cry.

His story is told from here to there,
How he grew a long beard and long white hair,
How he carried a gun like a deadly flare;
But his knife was hid, you couldn't see where.

He's not been seen in a long long time,
Some think he died in a caved in mine,
But I toast Old Jack with a drink of wine;
Cause the hell he left had a vacant sign.

I moved today to his desert shack,
To toast my toes in hell's own crack,
He won't mind cause he won't be back;
His friends came by and he followed their track.

I found a note on Old Jack's wall,
That darned near made this old man bawl.
You called, I went while standing tall.
You lost, I slipped, you let me fall;

So remember Old Jack as you eat your feast,
The love of this land made Jack a beast,
The rich do care but they care the least;
So remember Old Jack as you live in peace.

He gave it all, he gave his best,
He got good grades and passed the test,
The moral is, Old Jack was blessed;
He gave his life, like all the rest.