The Lights Aren’t On

All My Joys and Regrets

Sometimes you walk to write…and bring a camera too…just in case those images of fall might work for this night. And so, I wander about the Thanksgiving homes…a Hayes Carll tune within my head. I sense the streetscapes and homes quieter than normal…still…pandemic and all…cars are in front of homes…people at the table. The turkey and all…good chatter. In seeking the colour in the leaves I happen to see one family at the table…it’s good to see as I wander on past the crescent moon.

My earlier night comprised a new tradition…turkey bangers and mash, with poultry gravy, stuffing with additional carrots and celery, fine cranberries (albeit tinned but with whole berries too). Pretty darn good with a single dark brew stout Guinness. Rounded off with pumpkin pie and whipped cream (albeit the squishy kind that froths from a can)…it amuses me.

But there is seriousness in this wander…forty days past…since you were last here. The walk makes it easier when you know all this – you get it all. When we walk past those that have been a long time before. Natural witnesses to our days…we still find thanks in the giving. We find a way.

It’s getting darker and I have managed a few blocks, a few thoughts and a few pics. Most of all I think to myself what words will come from these snippets that lurk? I round the corner to make another turn…stop by the flowers…those big Dahlia things I believe they are. Walk past a girl with a single red balloon and on to a little home where I hermit a bit…waiting…and as I come nearer to the corner I look to my windows but still…the lights aren’t on.

Hayes Carll: You Get It All, 2021.

Lyrics:

All my tame and all my wild
All my man and all my child
All my faults and all my scars
All my sometimes lucky stars
All my joys and my regrets
All my old Guy Clark cassettes
I knew the night we met that you’d get it all

All my lows and all my highs
All my truth and all my lies
All my rights and all my wrongs
All my ‘From now on’ love songs
All my future all my roots
All my worn out cowboy boots
I kick off in the hall, you get it all

And I’d rather drive you crazy, being more than you can stand
Than to let you try to love half a man
All my cards are on the table and darlin’ it’s your call
I’m all in so lose or win you get it all

All my ‘will be’ all my ‘was’
All my cloudy Texas dust
All my humble, all my braggin’
All my on and off the wagon
All my be your place to hide
All my always on your side
All my catch you when you fall, you get it all

And I’d rather drive you crazy, being more than you can stand
Than to let you try to love half a man
All my cards are on the table and darlin’ it’s your call
But I’m all in so lose or win you get it all

All my blessin’ all my curse
All my better all my worse
From the chapel to the hearse, you get it all
Yeah you do