The Poet Game - Greg Brown

Down by the river junior year

Walking with my girl

And we came upon a place

There in the tall grass where a couple

Had been making love

And left the mark of their embrace

I said to her, «Looks like they had some fun.»

She said to me, «Let's do the same.»

And still I taste her kisses

And her freckles in the sun

When I play the poet game

A young man down in hill country

In the year of '22

Went to see his future bride

She lived in a rough old shack

That poverty blew through

She invited him inside

She’d been cooking, ashamed and feeling sad

She could only offer him bread and her name —

Grandpa said that it was the best gift

A fella ever had

And he taught me the poet game

I had a friend who drank too much

And played too much guitar —

And we sure got along

Reel-to-reels rolled across

The country near and far

With letters poems and songs.

But these days he don’t talk to me

And he won’t tell me why

I miss him every time i say his name

I don’t know what he’s doing

Or why our friendship died

While we played the poet game

The fall rain was pounding down

On an old New Hampshire mill

And the river wild and high

I was talking to her while leaves blew down

Like a sudden chill —

There was wildness in her eyes

We made love like we’d been waiting

All of our lives for this —

Strangers know no shame —

But she had to leave at dawn

And with a sticky farewell kiss

Left me to play the poet game

I watched my country turn into

A coast-to-coast strip mall

And I cried out in a song:

If we could do all that in thirty years

Then please tell me you all —

Why does good change take so long?

Why does the color of your skin

Or who you choose to love

Still lead to such anger and pain?

And why do I think it’s any help

For me to still dream of

Playing the poet game?

Sirens wail above the fields —

Another soul gone down —

Another Sun about to rise

I’ve lost track of my mistakes

Like birds they fly around

And darken half of my skies

To all of those I’ve hurt —

I pray you’ll forgive me

I to you will freely do the same

So many things I didn’t see

With my eyes turned inside

Playing the poet game

I walk out at night to take a leak

Underneath the stars —

Oh yeah that’s the life for me

There’s Orion and the Pleiades

And I guess that must be Mars —

All as clear as we long to be

I’ve sung what I was given —

Some was bad and some was good

I never did know from where it came

And if I had it all to do again

I am not sure I would

Play the poet game