Tiny Tony

Swing, swing, swing for the fences

You'll bring down all their defenses

I know that you're nervous

Know you're ashamed and afraid they'll remember your name

But swing, swing, swing for the fences the same

He kicks the woodchips, hopping off of the swing

Tiny Tony turning tempers every time he walks in

He always had a knack for putting things together

And his cleverness attracted other kids to his mettle

From early on he had a strong group of friends

Acting like doofuses and schooling rubrics

The teachers all thought he was off the blueprints

So they pulled out the toolkits to get him to sit but

Tony's dreams were a little too lucid

And he saw the teachers were all too clueless

So he got loose lipped and saw the mood shift

The loony kids were marked down as the hooligans

For though they were talented

They could not balance it

At the top of the class

With nothing to challenge it

When they finished their work early and wanted to play?

The teacher told them to sit quiet and stay

So they scribbled and twiddled thumbs and made up riddles

While the other kids caught up little by little

But one kid had the gall to stand up tall

Tiny Tony was the one who could rally them all

So swing, swing, swing for the fences

You'll bring down all their defenses

I know that you're nervous

Know you're ashamed and afraid they'll remember your name

But swing, swing, swing for the fences the same

Tony stood up and spoke out, loud

Why should he sit still with the average crowd

He was proud and high-browed and knowledge-endowed

And could learn way more if they let him out

His friends all nodded, the kids all agreed

They started to plead and they stomped their knees

But the teach said "no, there's rules to follow"

"That's the truth, no matter how hard to swallow"

So they sat and wallowed, and waited for class to end

Waited for tomorrow so they could do it again

But Tony wasn't done, he didn't relent

As the years passed, he said it again and again

And as authority failed to represent his dissent

Any person in power he began to resent

His structured debates

Turned to distaste

His verbal castrations

Turned to flat hate

Until that fateful day: Tony finally lashed out

Sent a teacher to the ER, she didn't come out

So swing, swing, swing for the fences

You'll bring down all their defenses

I know that you're nervous

Know you're ashamed and afraid they'll remember your name

But swing, swing, swing for the fences the same

It's been ten years, and Tony's nearly thirty

He did his time in juvey, he pled with the jury

Now all he does is stink, think, and drink dirty shirleys

Weeping for the woman that he left on a gurney

Now Tony knows his mind was sharp as a tack

He knows the bones to grind that made him attack

He knows that he was young with a temper to check

And now he's afraid to use his intellect

So he drinks and weeps and is a drain on the town

But he has many years left yet to turn it all around

Thirty is young, there's so much life ahead

We know you've learned from your mistakes, so get out of the bed

Go face the red

Face the fear

Face the pain

Give back to the world for what you took away

Use your brain, be a gain for the world

Tiny Tony, you're so much more than what you did to the girl

Go swing, swing, swing for the fences

You'll bring down all their defenses

I know that you're nervous

Know you're ashamed and afraid they'll remember your name

But swing, swing, swing for the fences the same