THE BALLAD OF DRIFTING JOE

THE BALLAD OF DRIFTING JOE

The gun lay near that fateful night
Hot rage fed burning fever
Collen had found another love
Joe couldn't bear to leave her
He pled, he argued and canoled
He pled, then drank, then pled
And though his rye soaked mind can't say
He must have shot her dead

They held a trial for drifting Joe
Same day they held the wake
the townsfolk bet; "Before she's down
To Kingston Joe we'll take
We'll take him where the walls are high
Where men court fear and strife
For even though you're your young and drunk
You cannot take a life,"

"You cannot take a life", they said
The learned judge concurred
"I sentence you to all your days.."
Young Joe said not a word
For even though the townsfolk said
His grief was mant to sway
Joe cried because his only love
Colleen went to town  that day.

Is it best to go beneath the earth
When all is done and said
Or spen your life behind those walls
In the land of the living dead

where your grief is fixed upon your mind
and your fear is your only friend
Whether your hopes and dreams of what might be
Become wild pleas for the end

At night when all the lights were low
And latticed shadows fell
Upon the thick, cold limestone walls
That formed the tiny cell
There could be heard throughout the range
With stifled sobs between
The gnawing of a conscience
And the anguished CRY "Colleen"

Created by

Jasmine Rose 13

Jasmine-Rose-Productions

May 16, 2003