Joe Grieco

GRAYEYARD BOYS

 

We used to meet at Johnny’s All Night Coffee Shop

Get there after graveyard shift for java, and just talk

The food was cheap as desert dirt and tasted just as bad

But the coffee drawn in endless cups, the best we ever had

            Now the doors are boarded up, the neon lights are busted up

            Weeds grow high as countertops, and it’s dry as dust in the coffee cups

Always plenty of free parking at Johnny’s Coffee Shop

The waitresses were flirty girls who dated jerks and cops

You never told me what went down when you gave the blonde a ride

Her trailer out by county line. You liked your ladies double-wide.

            Now her place is boarded up, her mailbox is busted up

            Weeds grow like a corn crop, and it’s dry as dirt in the coffee cups

Defiant like immortals, “Be Bold, Go Big” you’d say

We had jobs and cars and coffee: it’ll always be this way

The graveyard shift, blue collar boys at Johnny’s Coffee Shop

We talked and drank and flirted, we never slept, never stopped

            Wild oats have long been sown, what once was green has overgrown

            The graveyard boys asleep, alone

            Johnny’s Coffee Shop is gone