Carlisle's Haul

(album: Complicated Game - 2015)

Old Carlisle needs some money
He's running a seine out off the point
We'll all go help him though
Commercial season's closed
We might all wind up in the joint

There's bright lights out on the sand bar
Hear the donkey motor whine
the donkey man minds his business
And I know to be minding mind
I learned from the best

Hear them crabbers cuss the weather
And they cuss the government too
Nowadays crabbing and fishing
hanging on to a pot to piss in
Is just about the best a man can do

[Chorus:]
It's hard not to cry and cuss
when this old world is just bigger than us
And all we got is pride and trust in our kind

Old Carlisle and Uncle Freddy
Don't you know they've seen some times
They remember gas light
oyster war machine gun fights
I wished I'd known them in their prime

Now they stare out past the lights
to the darkness on the water
I don't think they're liking what they see
Long before that seine can make a circle
They'll know what the outcome's gonna be

They learned from the best
They learned from the best

So, haul that seine up in the long boat
We get to keep whatever's gilled
We'll take a bag of bunkers home
For crab bait and blue fish chum
a string of croaker for the Sunday meal
String of croaker makes a meal

[Chorus:]
It's hard not to cry and cuss
when this old world is just bigger than us
And all we got is pride and trust in our kind

Staring down that long, steep slope
We gather round and we hold out hope
Because at the end of the rope
There's a little more rope most times

Uncle Freddy said we did a good job
He's sending us home with a nine pound blue
But I don't see a truckload for the market
What's old Carlisle gonna do?

'Cept hall them lights off the sandbar
Shut the donkey motor down
Tow them longboats up the river
Let's all get on back to town
Let's all get on back to town before the warden comes

He knows better than get here before dawn
He's got that green uniform
and the kids think he's a jerk
but you know he's somebody's cousin
And we can't have a hometown boy out of work

[Chorus]