Tarbelly and Featherfoot

Tarbelly stood in the door
Eyes looking out
Body like a statue
Mouth drooling, like a leaky spout

Looking for something from another day
A day when she could ask him and he would want to play
Thump, thump, down the stairs he came
She heard him coming but she stood there just the same
Featherfoot walked right past Tarbelly into the kitchen
Made and ate three sandwiches, drunk a pot of coffee, cut his toenails, made three phone calls and answered six

And all the while Tarbelly stood in the door
Eyes looking out
Body like a statue
Mouth drooling, like a leaky spout

Feathfoot got to thinking he’d like to go out
But Tarbelly stood there in the way
And he thought and he thought and he thought of a game he used to play in his youth, called swing the statue
And he took Tarbelly by the ribs, and he carried her out into the yard
And round and round and round he swung
And then he let her fly, way up high, over the hills she went
And where she stopped no one can say
You can’t chase a shadow across a day
No you can’t get love without giving it away