Optimist Blues

Optimist’s Blues

What can you feel for the world,
Living so short and knowing so few?
Happiness will come unfurled
If you let it get to you

I can’t stand to stay like this
Having company from just the walls
I’m not demanding true bliss
But it wouldn’t be remiss

I’m up in Lincoln, NH
My arm’s broken but I’m free
I wish I was camped there,
A place I can just be

I could spend all my days
Ambivalent to the world
In my canoe I could daze,
All comfortably in-curled

I can remember what B.B. said,
“The thrill is gone away for good”
The blues made sure my heart bled
Like you know it should

In the winter, snow fixes all;
A clean lace maternal sheet
It’s also my sometimes pall,
But much less discreet

I need to stay alive for long enough
To know I’ve made a smile always
This may turn out to be rough
But I’ll stay alive all the days
That I need to make a difference,
To know that person ain’t lyin’,
I will not stop tryin’, til
The day I die, and, pass on.

But I’ll be back to New Hampshire
To scare the shit out of you
My soul still camped there
Knowin’ I did what I was supposed to do…