Don't Forget His Name

Sometimes in the dustiest of dust-filled barrooms You’ll find a man so broken and so drunk You won’t know outright whether to believe his story You won’t know whether to laugh or to judge Me I met such a man yesterday He had just been fired from being a cop I was sipping my beer when he stumbled over next to me He put his arm around me and told me “don’t get up” He told me he was only doing his duty He did what he had been trained to do He told me he was only following orders He told me I’d been raised to kill the bad guys too Just when I had heard enough of his drunk rambling His voice it cracked and his eyes they did shine He dropped his head onto the sticky table And sobbed upon it quite a long long time I slapped him on the back, said “pull yourself together” He nodded and said “there’s just one thing I gotta know” He said “my life is over, there’s not a living soul who don’t hate me” He got real small and said “where the hell am I supposed to go?” I told him “sorry, but I don’t have the answer I’m a person who the crueler fates avoid There is a man who knows, find him and he’ll tell you the answer Don’t forget his name, it’s George, George Floyd”