Badger

It was late in the summer when the corn was fully grown We'd gone for a swim in the pond on my Uncle Henry's farm And when we got home we saw a badger in the yard Running flat out for a hole beneath the shed It disappeared into its den underneath the floor And it was gone and Dad just said, "Goddamn A badger can't stay, he'll kill you just like that Mean as any grizzly, sneaky as any cat" And he went and got his gun in the closet in the hall And he pulled a six-pack from the fridge and he walked on out the door Well, Mom made us brush our teeth and get ourselves to bed "It's late and he'll be awhile" was all that she would say And I saw him in the twilight with his .410 across his lap Sitting in a lawn chair, staring at the shed Fallen soldier from the six-pack laying at his feet And sometime in the night a gunshot woke me from my sleep It was late in the summer when the corn was fully grown We'd gone for a swim in the pond on my Uncle Henry's farm