Charlie the Weatherman
It was Charlie who taught me to ride on a bike
Charlie who taught me 'bout flyin' a kite
It was Charlie who taught me the beauty of dreams
He'd say, ""Life's so much more than it seems
He looked like a scarecrow so ragged and thin
When he knocked at the farmhouse door
I could tell that my mother was nervous at first
With my father away in the war
He said he was hungry from waking so far,
But a handout never would do
""Now my name is Charlie and for something to eat
I could predict the weather for you
He talked of the talent with which he was blessed
""It's an odd sort of gift, "" he explained
""But the Lord makes the weather and I just observe
And only a fool could complain""
As nighttime was falling we asked him to stay
And he camped by the sycamore trees
My mother asked ""What will you do if it rains?""
Charlie smiled and said, ""Just leave the weather to me
In the wandering breeze I can hear again
The song that Charlie the Weatherman sang,
Sweet breath of God blow the clouds away
Till I walk in the light of that endless spring day
Now Charlie stayed with us as days turned to weeks
It seemed that somehow he belonged
And I'd always tease him when he'd watch the sky
But his forecasts never were wrong
And Charlie would tell me a story each night
From the tattered old Bible he read
""Winter or Summer, Springtime or Fall
It's the weather inside us that matters"" he said
In the wandering breeze I can hear again
The song that Charlie the Weatherman sang,
Sweet breath of God blow the clouds away
Till I walk in the light of that endless spring day
One morning at breakfast he seemed a bit sad
With a far-away look in his eyes, ""Storms rollin' in""
That was all he said but there wasn't a cloud in the sky
The last time I saw him he waved his old hat
As he stood at the top of the hill
He left me his Bible and in it he wrote
""Keep your eyes on the sky, and I always will
And it rained and rained like the tears I cried
On the day that Charlie the Weatherman died
And the wind has carried his heart away
Past the silver-lined clouds to that endless Spring day
