Dynamite and coal make hard living

And with your family in eastern KY

Hard living was in abundance

Like nettles across the glade

But you met a woman with young’uns

Who you adopted as your own

Having a son who was raised by mother

And daughter that introduced me to you

You knew she had married before

Mother and daughter though I was too

Late on knowing the latter

A canary song for devastated miner

You welcomed me in the same manner

Bourbon and irish folk music we shared

A twenty nine year old Armagnac

Tied houses in favorite memory

Your glasses shone and mustache twitched

As through albums of pictures you switched

Making sure a knife was pronounced K-nife

How I wish we could come back an celebrate again

We’ll never share that Van Winkle

I never saved your number

Since my wife occupied the empty space

And my family said let dead dogs lie

Thankfully I was as good of a shot as you

plaster ceiling rains much the same

As poor white boys, turns out fixed as well.

Scars can remain though, this dog goes on

I wish I had remembered the example you set

The love you gave, the lives you accepted

I wish I had got to say goodbye

But I hope you gave up smoking

I hope the new guy laughs at your k-nife joke

And I hope you’re able to all come back and celebrate again