Kids on a river

We pushed off slow

on the muddy water

Cool brown current

Late July

You went in first

when the boat rolled over

You Came up choking

Never do it twice

Lighting fires

and running through it

We loved to throw those little dice

Stealing punkins

then run like hell

Good thing Dave

knew how to drive

Hanging out

the passenger window

Almost lost my fingers

on a mailbox slide

Playing our Auglaize River blues

Soaked shoes

Learned to drive stick

In that Subaru

If the world feels hard

I just remember

How I learned to lose and laugh it off with you

The Auglaize River blues

Bare twelve year old butts

in the summer traffic

Mooning cars was fun to do

Those honking horns

All that holy panic

We all bowed low

Then your mom drove through (oh shit!)

This is my Auglaize River blues

Soaked shoes

We really tore up

That subaru

If the world feels hard

I just remember

How I learned to lose and laugh it off with you

My Auglaize River blues

You put that harp in my clumsy fingers

Said

“Breathe in

Bend it ’til it cries”

I carried that old harp everyday

Through five countries

It was by my side

Poker nights in the beat-up camper

Smoke-thick air and a busted fan

Shooting bottle rockets from your bedroom window

Ninja stars and smoking grass

We didn’t need money

we had each other

The Volkswagen Rabbit

And a rusty blue van

This is my Auglaize River blues

Rusty tin roof

Late-night jokes

And borrowed shoes

If the years roll on and we drift apart

We’ll still be those kids on a river

raising hell

It’s true

My Auglaize River blues