Calamity John

 

With and an old man’s eyes and a young man’s wink

Calamity John sat down to drink

His fingers stained with nicotine

While he talked about what might of been

And a look of misadventure never found.

 

He’d travelled the world from an old arm chair

With a remote control as he sat there

Making plans he’d later piss against the wall

 

And now and then he’d get the eye

From a pretty gal as she passed by

But a faint heart never won a lady’s hand

 

So with an old man’s eyes and a young man’s wink

Calamity John sat down to drink

With a broken heart and dreams never fulfilled

 

And as I tell this tale I buy John’s ale

In an empty pub that most people snub

With a look of misadventure in my eye

 

Because I see it clear while I’m sitting here

As clear as the young man’s wink in old John’s eye

 

That it’s not always the falls, that break your heart

Not always the wrong roads where you fall apart

But mistakes we did not make and pass us by.

 

So I say farewell and break the spell

Of nicotine and might have been

Shake his hand and make my way unto the door

 

Then as I look back through the smoke filled black

Through the window that reflects back

I catch an old man’s wink in a young man's eye.