Runt

Robbie and Bobby and Buster and Glen

climbed in the car at a quarter to ten

hoping to find something better to do

than hold down the trailer with softcore and brew

Robbie was driving and Bobby felt great

blown as the speakers in that Z-28

Buster and Glen shared a bottle of Jack

they passed back and forth sitting crammed in the back

Their mom was a mess and they moved quite a bit

living on welfare and gravel and spit;

three different daddies between the four brothers

countin’ on nothing aside from each other

Robbie and Bobby and Buster and Glen

found a good party and piled on in;

Robbie and Bobby sat down by the bong

and Buster kept both of those kegs going strong

while Glen took a walk ‘round the block with a girl

smearin’ her lipstick and mussin’ her curls

who never did mention that she had a beau

not that it mattered, but how would he know

that fool and his friends would be waiting inside

with heads full of liquor and fistfuls of pride -

words were exchanged and then somebody swung

and the whole goddamn party went mad and unstrung

Robbie and Bobby and Buster and Glen

sent that fool through a plate window and then

Robbie and Bobby knocked two down the stairs

and Buster used someone to bust up a chair

while Glen went outside, took a look at the lawn

and knew it was time for the four to get gone;

the guy had a pretty good bleed from his neck,

the girl was sobbing, the house was a wreck

The cops finally showed but a little too late

to do more than look for a Z-28,

no one had names and no one really knew,

it happened so fast that they couldn’t say who

and Robbie and Bobby and Buster and Glen

packed up and took off and weren’t heard from again;

countin’ on nothing aside from each other,

and that’s why I grew up without my big brothers.