The Hummingbird

A farm boy from Kentucky hills

Learned to play guitar for his back porch thrills

Lean a ladder back chair on a window sill

And look out at the stars

He must've got it up in Michigan

He and his brothers were pickin' then

When he moved to Gary he took it with him

That Gibson hummingbird guitar

And oh, how that guitar would ring

Dad would close his eyes and sing

Silver-haired daddy would always bring

A tear to his eye

I was all of five years old

With my brother Don and a kid down the road

We just did what we were told

Get outside and play

Someone wrapped it in a coat

And we took it to the swamp

Just to see if it'd float

But a hummingbird is not a boat

And it sank straight away

When he got home that's when he heard

What we'd done to that hummingbird

And he looked at me and never even said a word

He just went out back to see

And there it was in all its mess

With the cat-tails and the red-winged nests

There he laid it down to rest

For all eternity

Mmm, one of these days you know what I'll do

Get me a hummingbird guitar and a brother or two

And underneath a Kentucky moon

Give him back his childhood dream

It won't make up for 32 years

And it can't dry up a swamp of tears

Oh, but it's better than a case of beer

And a fifth of Jim Beam

Thank you