It was late in the summer when the corn was fully grown
We’d gone for a swim in the pond on my uncle Henry’s farm
And when we got home we saw a badger in the yard
Running flat out for a hole beneath the shed
It disappeared into its den underneath the floor
And it was gone and Dad just said "Goddamn
Badger can’t stay he’ll kill you just like that
Mean as any grizzly, sneaky as any cat."
And he went and got his gun from the closet in the hall
and pulled a 6-pack from the fridge and walked on out the door
While Mom made us brush our teeth and get ourselves to bed
It’s late and he’ll be awhile was all that she would say
and I saw him in the twilight, his .410 across his lap
Sitting in a lawn chair, staring at the shed
A fallen soldier from the 6-pack laying at his feet
and sometime in the night a gunshot woke me from my sleep
It was late in the summer when the corn was fully grown
We’d gone for a swim in the pond on my uncle Henry’s farm