Badlees Bendin' The Rules
Pity my brother For how he's suffered me Through nameless towns And cold prairie For restless women At the end of the line Who tendered checks for A promise divine Cash as quick as "vegas" Like "vegas" in a dream I work this charismatic ruse For my brother's peace and being Sittin' tight in Moline The money on the bed With every memory sharp to me And the fear of times ahead Maybe the good book Came from the divine Or maybe it was written Just to keep us in line The mistakes of the sages Make the rules for the fools So father forgive me For bendin' the rules.... Well, mister he improved some With the money I scammed Some days his light shines as bright As the light of the promised land Death was often something We freely would discuss When he was ten and I was twelve And the spectre would often brush In and out of treatments Since twenty months of age At eighteen the insurance No longer would maintain And my old man in the kitchen His hands upon his face Did weep to shake his very soul In the darkness of this place Maybe the good book Came from the divine Or maybe it was written Just to keep us in line The mistakes of the sages Make the rules for the fools So father forgive me For bendin' the rules.... Hold me Saint Christopher Over every county line Overlook my blasphemy For the sake of buying time Grant him days of laughter Bestow me clemency He sleeps soft in the backseat His freedom from ordeal To every ruddy youngster Off free in summer's fields And every young lass poised to claim Her share of what love yields To all the grieving angels And the litany of saints I am my brother's keeper To what end decides the fates Maybe the good book Came from the divine Or maybe it was written Just to keep us in line The mistakes of the sages Make the rules for the fools So father for give me For bendin' the rules.....
