We All Got A Debt To Pay

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 * co-written with Phil Christiansen * 

Whoever gave me this old jacket
Probably wonders where it’s been
Served me well through fourteen winters
Some nights it’s been my only friend

Half my books and all my stories
Crossed my doorstep secondhand
Course I’ve lost my share of jackets
From Minnesota to Japan

Traded grandpa’s leather bible
For a Sergeant Pepper vinyl
With my high school P.I.C. when I moved away
He felt so bad when he sold it
But I just laughed and told him
We all got a debt to pay

Snuck my father’s antique wrist watch
Back into his house last week
Never asked me where it’d gone to
Probably guessed somewhere with me

And when I left Sacramento
I gave my old Nintendo
To the girl who swore she’d give it back someday
If I ever get it back maybe
I’ll tell her what she meant to me
We all got a debt to pay

There’s a bunch of things I owe someone
And a whole lot more I borrowed from
The people that I’ve met along the way
We both had our share of hurt
But I hope you’ll keep my flannel shirt
I miss it now and then and that’s okay
We all got a debt to pay

 - June 2020 -                                                                                                                                  #365