With tremblin' heart
I headed down
to the Gatherin' in Cowtown,
full a' hope I was, but fearful,
With my cowboy verses jinglin'
And my hopes a' minglin'
My nerves that were a tinglin'
It had seemed so darned invitin'
And had sounded so excitin'.
I just imagine me recitin'
My cowboy verses on the stage.
Well, I made my mind to do it...
And somehow muddle thru it,
for I knew that cowboy verses were the rage,
But I feared that ever after
I'd hear the raucous laughter.
And the boos that shook the rafter.
the chants that swelled
For me to leave the stage
Well, I didn't listen to it...
that voice that said, "Don't do it".
Instead I heard those thoughts,
"If lifes dealin' lemons."
Make yerself a jug of lemonade.
Now, they say when folks git older
Their minds ain't quite so golden.
And some of them git child like.
So fine! I'd just revert again
To what I was when I was ten
A lippy kid whose sass was in its prime.
I'd be that fearless twerp just one more time.
I shook my squeekin', creakin' bones
And fed my mind that lemon drink.
It worked!! I swear that I
Was once again A "springchicken"
Brand new cowboy duds I wore,
I took the stage
But then I saw the
Crowd that jammed the place.
That's when this Hamlet froze up,
Ad the stage fright shows up.
My new found courage slows up
I nearly throws up in disgrace.
Couldn't say what I recited.
Too brain dead, too excited.
Could have been the cowboy verses that I wrote.
But it could have been a prayer,
for I swear that God was there,
Strummin' on the chords inside my throat.
I recited for the Gatherin'
And when I stopped my blaberin
And this cowboy bowed
Did my old deaf ears deceive me?
Not a single boo to grieve me did they give!
Would you believe me?.
The crowd, they were a cheerin'