The Ballad of Frankie Lee

Frankie Lee sat on his front porch
Drinking warm beer and blowin’ on his harp
The moonlight shone on the swirling flood
Which had made a lake out of his front yard
His two best friends sat at his feet
Enjoying the rough music so sweet
Chester, the big floppy Labrador
Laid out like a bear rug on the floor
And the skittish little kitty he called Fillmore
The two little critters loved the blues so much
Because Frankie Lee had the magic touch

Gradually the silence of the night
Was broken by a motorboat and its searchlight
It was Deputy Sheriff Duran
A shotgun draped over his thick forearm
Determined to save the public from harm
And the boat’s driver, another tough man

The Sheriff said “We heard your melody makin’
And figured you might need savin’”
Frankie Lee said “Your timin’ is real good
Me and my friends could use some help
To save us from the ragin’ flood”’
The Sheriff said “Hold up, son. Step into the boat
But the animals cannot come along
For them there is no hope”
“Well, I cannot leave without them. They are my only friends
Sheriff Duran said “I reckon that you oughta’
I’m tellin’ you to get aboard
And that’s a lawful order”
Frankie Lee kissed Chester and Fillmore
And left them out some water
Saying “I’ll be back in a couple of days and then we’ll be alright
Then he got aboard the boat and it pulled away into the night
As Chester and Fillmore lay down on the porch
Patiently awaiting Frankie Lee to return and set things right



The Superdome was a hellish zone
For a man to be left on his own
Dark and hot, no law and order
Thousands of people with no food or water
Gangsters running wild high on crack and booze
The only lights from the TV crews
Showing the world the ugly news
Frankie Lee found a seat with a church congregation
The people there sang gospel hymns and prayed for their salvation
But Frankie Lee could only thing of Chester and Fillmore
And their desperate situation
While the Nation’s imperial rulers watched from the window of a plane outside
The people in the stadium went insane
And some committed suicide
The guards had all run away and left the blighted victims behind
In the evil and the chaos Frankie Lee lost his mind
His thoughts turned away from his two best friends and all that he held dear
Reduced to the level of an animal by hunger, thirst and fear
Not so Chester and Fillmore, alone and defenseless in the night
They knew that Frankie Lee would move the world to set things right

When the law showed up at the Superdome
They organized the situation
And cut the people into groups
To facilitate their evacuation
Frankie Lee said “I have to go back to Sycamore Street
To save my dog and cat”
The man told him “There is no personnel for that
Your neighborhood is under ten feet of flood
We’ll send in the ASPCA when conditions are good
Your animals will have to wait
There’s people here in very bad shape”

They said “Frankie Lee get on the bus. We’re sending you real far away
Louisiana’s all filled up and so is Texas too
You’ll have to go to Utah
It’s the best that we can do
In Utah they’ll take care of you”
They flew him into Utah on a military flight
And when he deplaned in Ogden he could not believe the sight
In place of lush green foliage and willowy eucalyptus
He saw only dead tumbleweed and prickly hostile cactus
Instead of great Lake Ponchartrain
A desolate wasteland with no name
Instead of lush wisteria
An American Siberia
Frankie Lee fell to his knees and prayed for the Lord’s intervention
And forgiveness for abandoning his best friends to their certain destruction
He knew that in the opposite sense they would not have let him die
But would lay down their innocent lives that he might yet survive
He moaned “Oh Lord please save them
They are so pure and free
I pray that you might spare their lives
And instead take me!”

At just that moment Sylvia the Rescue Lady was riding down Hastings Street in an inflatable boat
The pollution of benzene and methanol in the water was so acute
It obliged her to wear a mask and protective Hazmat suit
When the boat reached the corner of Sycamore Street a thought popped in her head
She said “I see some animals on the porch of that gray house straight ahead
A big black dog and a tiny little kitty
And Lord they look half-dead
When the boat pulled up to Frankie Lee’s house, Chester and Fillmore made a joyful din
And Sylvia the Rescue Lady opened her arms and welcomed them in

Sylvia the Rescue Lady found new homes for Chester and Fillmore
Chester lives in a big house on the beach but he won’t go in the water
Frankie Lee got a job in LA driving a great big gravel truck
Some times he pulls over to the side of the road
To cry about his misbegotten luck
Fillmore lives in a little pink house in Wheaton, Illinois
One day he was chasing a flitting butterfly
He sat down and remembered Chester and Frankie Lee
And the time the water came and swept away their lives


The End

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Posted on 10/29/2005 ( Permanent Link )
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