Trumpet Boy

a small photo of a boogie-woogie air force trumpet boy

no simple soldier -that one who waited but yearned for the sun to land over the yardarm

and after the war a challenge to avoid wooden nickels

still they were saying harder where there's none but he felt a pig in a poke waiting

back in the old days he sold everything from soup to nuts charmed all the stooges from here to timbuc times two

always knew where the crow flew had been where the brave dare not go could tell a tale or two if he thought you gave a tinker's damn but compared to other war stories his wounds mounted only to a hill of beans

that horn he blew like gangbusters and for two bits he could be three sheets in the wind now, without the boat he has missed the ship he couldn't see for looking

he's lost now where the sun doesn't shine and it's time to pull the plug