O Lord, the things I have seen in my days I have been given

O Lord, the things by your grace to me You have shown

South-West Virginia and Your beautiful Blue Ridge Mountains

Iron Ridge culture, hard working poor white trash, 1950’s.

“I’m going to start remembering now”

These, the first words I ever remember

Spoken aloud, words from within my own soul

Inner words, everyone has a soul, I know They speak to all

Placed all the rooms in our little home, which I still remember

Outside, counted all the concrete blocks front to back

Two years old, friends how do we do and know such things?

Born with math skills, but look at Mozart what at three he could play.

Summertime, setting on the front porch, my two siblings by my side

Walk across the dirt road to the wood gate

Sunny day, watching the cattle on the other side

Mom gave us each a nickel for us a Coke to buy, a great treat at the time

Walked to the Shell just below the house that sheltered us five.

O how hard it was on Mom, to always be so poor

Minimum wage factories, workers just chafe on the rich mans floor

I guess it’s easier on the pre -school children, the classes they don’t know

School starts, you see other children, realities you had not seen before.

Mid 1960’s, poor flight to to west, a better life your hoping for

You trade the Blue Ridge for the Great Sioux’s Black Hills

O Lord, on at trip like this, the things a child’s eyes ingest

Moon light shines, illuminates the beauty of the big rigs

August Rattle Snakes playing in the sand, 114 in the shade

30 days later, chest high snow in September, O what a land.

One year later, hoping for better, for a good job toward Windy we ran

When you are so poor, you spend your whole life trying to escape it

But even young, I knew that pain, always present in my Mamma’s eyes

Life is always hard with an alcohol disease riddled parent

Knowing that you are hated and he beats you with glee

Even harder on the child when they know other adults know and see

They never ever come to your aid, they always just let it be.

Life’s early hardships, good or bad, they help create the person inside

About forth or fifth grade I walked into your door Lord

My life long rock, my life many times You have saved

Poor white boy, learning of life in the mid-west, with a Hill Billy mind

With some knowledge of Dakota’s  beautiful Black Hills

These life’s lessons, good and bad, always living behind my eyes.

Now I am aged with gray beard and store bought eyes

Now the projector in my mind plays me many memories

Occasionally I see some of the good I have done in my life

Though I do try to castrate these pictures from my mind

A lofty heart leads to evil, I wish to give ego no quarters to hide.

In my life I have mastered the art of many evils

O how I wish I could say that this thing was a lie

But when you have seen and have known pure evil

Pay some attention to the news, evil all around us resides

Demons have no fear of man, they will lie, looking you in the eyes

They will tell you they are Angels, for your best interest they care inside

Do not be deceived, mainly in the worlds capitals they hide.

In my time Lord You have shown me many things

Through Your Spirit You have given me some site

In life it is so easy to become a manic-depressive

You have so plainly shown me our planets plight and demise

Our leaders and the media so filled with venom to Your light

Evil so blinded and hungry for more power, money, and pride.

I know that by the time the trumpet sounds

I will once again be just dust upon the ground

Though I cringe for all our children, and theirs

The battle of the Nations against their Creator

For left behind loved ones, Armageddon lies ahead.

As the Lord and His Angels return to fight from the clouds overhead

The Demons pre-judged, to Hell they will now be thrown

Leaving the poor defrauded people to fight God and His Angels alone

They are now like grapes in the press, confused, disillusioned, and dead.

Lord I thank You that this event I will not have to see, “In My Time”.