Me and Oscar

Me and Oscar were best friends
back when Roy Rogers rode the land
We were tough as nails/Thick as thieves/Pure as sunlight through the trees
I would bleed when Oscar cut his hand

He was a football hero Friday nights
and after he would win one for the blue and white
We’d double date at the drive-in show/We were always late gettin’ home
But, oh, the plans we made in his old Ford

Those were days of innocence
School books and hours spent learning about right and wrong
But somewhere along the way the world took us in different ways
Now, I’m still here but Oscar, well, he’s gone

I went to school he went to war
He came back with ghosts in his eyes
Oscar found it hard to eat/Hard to think and hard to sleep
A wounded man with all the scars inside

He kept a gun beside his bed
For fightin’ endless battles in his head
But late one night he finally won/The war was over the combat done
Now, “Oscar’s” just a name on a stone

Oh, those days of innocence
School books and hours spent learning about right and wrong
But somewhere along the way the world took us in different ways
Now, I’m still here but Oscar, well, he’s gone

Oscar never really made it home


© Richard Helm