FAWM 2022 #9: My Granddad's Banjo

Tres Seaver

2022-02-22 15:17

From the "Haunted Banjo" challenge:

https://fawm.org/forums/topic/12615/

Also a nod to Henry Clay Work's "My Grandfather's Clock", https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/My_Grandfather%27s_Clock

Lyrics

My grandad's banjo was too loud for the house,
Or at least, that's what grandma always said.
With its deep-stained pot and its long maple neck,
It hung on a nail in the shed.

There were tunes and songs locked up in its strings,
its hand-carved bridge, and the haint-blue head.
But they languished away, banished from the light of day,
They yearned to be played, but now he's dead.

Jigs and reels never lightened dancers' feet,
Love songs never stirred a youngster's heart.
Ballads never raised the hair on the listener's neck:
Wild music unwelcome in her parlor.

Sometimes I still creep out in the still of night,
And lift it from its rusty jail.
Pluck a string and listen as the wind moans along
To that banjo's oh so mournful wail.

I pluck a string and listen as the wind moans along
To that banjo's mournful wail.