Archive for May, 2025

My petunias are none of your business

May 25, 2025 


We played in the dirt 
And you wiggled off my shirt 
You were amusing for a while 
With your agonizing smile

Now it's back to your wife 
Your respectable life
You can think of what we did
When you're playing with your kids 

My petunias are none of your business 
I don't care if you think they're looking nice
My petunias are none of your business
I won't make the same mistake twice 

You’re a weasel and a whiner 
And a coward and a fool
You sit on the council 
With the men who make the rules

It's a talky little town 
And the stories always flow
I’m not really bothered 
By what they think they know

My petunias are none of your business
Another man's gain will be your loss
My petunias are none of your business
Forget about my pumpkins and my squash

By Richard W. Bray

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Posted in Louise Erdrich, Poetry | Leave a Comment »

There’s not a wrong road or a right road

May 23, 2025 



You did the things you did
And here is where you are 
The future pulls us forward
Like the engine in my car

Since you were a kid 
You've been wearing out your luck
And now you're feeling empty
Like the gas in your truck 

There’s not a wrong road
Or a right road
There’s just one road to live
What you gonna take?
What you gonna give?

You can't fix the things you broke
Can't take back what you said
When your dreams go up in smoke 
You gotta make your own bed

The world is changing every day
And you can do it too
You can build your own road
You can create your own view

There’s not a wrong road
Or a right road
There’s just one road to live
What you gonna take?
What you gonna give?

by Richard W. Bray

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Posted in If it sounds country, Lyrics | Leave a Comment »

It’s not that I don’t care but the pain is only there

May 21, 2025 


don't ever 
say how i am feeling 
cuz i'm safer not revealing 
life is gonna hurt me
and the world is gonna 
dirt me

It's not that I don't care
But the pain is only there

the piano tried
to tell me
but i didn't wanna
smell me
swept it under the floor
cuz i couldn't
take any more

It's not that I don't care
But the pain is only there

so i'll open
up the door
just a little bit
not more
since you showed
me yours
and there isn't
keeping score

It's not that I don't care
But the pain is only there

by Richard W. Bray

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Posted in If it sounds country, Lyrics | Leave a Comment »

All of the suffering the world could ever know

May 10, 2025 

When life is lost to violence 
It diminishes the world
What looks back in the mirror 
When you murder boys and girls? 

Accumulated Silence 
In the face of a Crime
Echoes through the Galaxy 
Beyond all sense of Time 

All of the suffering 
The world could ever know
Exists inside the body 
Of a child who will not grow

by Richard W. Bray

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Posted in Poetry | Leave a Comment »

Hope and Feeling

May 4, 2025 

You don't have 
To follow trends
If friends object 
Then find new friends

We carry hurt
From days gone by
But you can look it
In the eye

Every day 
Is fresh and new
It doesn’t have to
Shackle you 

Now is time for
Hugs and healing 
Don’t be afraid of 
Hope and feeling

by Richard W. Bray

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Posted in If it sounds country, Lyrics | Leave a Comment »