I'm going AWOL at first light
Sherman threatens my hometown
I hate to leave Robert E. Lee
But my heart's not backing down
There's a railroad to Atlanta
I'll fight side by side with Paw  
General Johnson's too outnumbered
But we'll stand at Kennesaw


I don't like to leave Virginia
But Atlanta needs me there
With my family in danger
It's a duty I must bear
I'll meet Mayde at Big Shanty
We can have some time at last
I'll get up at the crack of dawn
And kick old Sherman's ***

Now I know we're way outnumbered
They have more than two to one
And Sherman hates all rebels
He's Abe Lincoln's favorite skunk
If we could get old Stonewall
To come down for just a spell
We could kick old Abe's invaders
From Kennessaw to hell


Mayde, I'm real scared of dying
If our rebel line should fall
But I'll stand to fight **** yankees
Make 'em think they hit a wall
We own no slaves but Sherman thinks
It's rebel killin' time
So I'll shoot holes in Yankee coats
Before there's one in mine

I came back to a town

In a year of my life

To nothing the same as before

I thought I would capture

All the familiar

But time had barred shut every door


I came back to a town

The first haven I knew

I never would see it again

Like Mr. Wolfe said

Nobody finds it

It's gone just like yesterday's wind


I came back to a town

That nurtured and reared me

Forgot me, not one hand to hold

And there was a man there

In all the shop windows

So utterly lost in the cold

It's up to me to build the future
With committment in my heart
Being honest with my neighbors
Is the point where I must start
A life must  always aim for truth
No hypocrisy prevail
With no blemish in my make up
If I aim for less I fail
Integrity to one another
Puts a deeper trust in place
To uphold that awesome value
Is to lift the human race
I must always stand on honor
And be forthright to the bone
Always strive to be less selfish
Where no evil turns me wrong
There will be  a better future
On that loftier plateau
God will bless me for the wisdom
If I choose that course to grow
When I truly ply those basics
There's a difference I can make
I must be a good example.....
Our third planet is at stake

I came to you, oh mighty land
Asleep to everything at hand
Lethargic from more southern air
Not yet awakened, unaware
The panorama I beheld
Composed a view unparalleled
A pastor with his best endeavor
Could preach forever and forever
And never say with words as clear
As the aura of this atmosphere
In the awe inspiring craggy peaks
And the chasms as His silence speaks
Where His creation stirs conviction
That brings a balming benediction
To one that hungers for a proof
Here, upon the planets roof

Where jungles stood
Great cities rise
On desert wasteland
New farmland lies
Where man aspired
To rearrange
He dreamed a dream
And made a change
His mind is such
A shaping force
You wonder why
Man treds a course
Indulging pride
Enslaved to greed
For inexorably
They lead
To mercenary depths
So deep
His God must sit alone
And weep
As man improves
Each varied part
Except for his
Primeval heart

Life's river's so wild

We may never cross it

Temptations lure us

But the chasm's too far

Love's a blessing or curse

For better or worse

I'm ready

Whenever you are

Once upon a millenium
I  scrawled in awkward letters
Straining for an undiscovered profundity
Not so different
From an upright creature
Some ages past
Who stroked upon
An empty page
With what he thought
Were poignant truths
And monumental metaphors
Like uprights love to leave
So as to titillate
Their future discoverers
While stretching unabashedly
To be a candidate
Future philosophers will doff
With certain validation
For unique truisms.....
I am recorded here
Wow, I said admiringly
To myself
In my true language
Hey, dat's sump'm
Eat ya heart out, Aris