Here I am
Scarecrow Sam
Nothin’ really happens, just floatin’ through time
Minutes scattered, hours float
I pick ‘em up and let ‘em float
Lazily by.
Nothin’ really happens but I kind of wish it would
Here in the fields of Dindely Wood.
Life never happens, and nothin’ much occurs-
That’s true when you’re an old scarecrow.

Sittin’ on my hitching post
Looking at the sky;
Sunset and all its colors
Getting kinda old
It happens every night here
I kinda wish I might here
Find an escape.
It happens all around me
Life just surrounds me
Wraps me in a blanket of beauty and cares
It’s gorgeous and I love it
But despise of those who show it
On those fleshy faces of theirs.
People going by me,
Never stopping by me,
Lines of experience etched on every face
Life can still be raw
In rural Arkansas
But folks don’t save much livin’
For the scarecrow race.

I sit here day and night
Just sittin’ here despite
The brutal heat of summer
And the wily winter breeze
Nothing happens to me
Crows, they look right through me.
So I just watch the world go by;
What else is there to seize?

I watch nature do her work
On rows of yellow corn
I watch as sprouts, all green and stout
Ripen to golden stalks in the morn.

It seems the corn and rain and flowers
Get all of the fun.
They get life from rain and sun and dirt,
But I get none.
I guess my place in life is to watch the ones I hate.
I could hop away right here and now
And leave them to their fate,
But I can’t escape this stake.

The world in front of me is just
A mural, painted bright
I sit and wait up on my post
Giving nobody a fright.
The world, this land,
And all its glories,
Stories, faults and songs
Are mine to watch;
My home as I wait
For something to come along.

For now, what I have told myself
-While raging silent rants-
Is that I’m needed on this farm
To keep watch of the plants.
The crows, they know it’s hopeless
And as far as they can see
That limp and lifeless rhubarb sack
Upon the stake is me.

I wish I could get up and dance
Among the corn and hay,
As much as I would love to run
Right here is where I’ll stay.
I wish that I could jump and sing
Or just get up and go
To follow my soul to the end of the earth
Or the start of a bright rainbow.
I’ve never kept a secret
And I’ve never had a swim
I’m not a part of life, I just
Let crows peck at my limbs.
Watching life I can’t be in
Is torture, it would seem.
I’ll never be a part of it, no-
I can only dream.

Yet as I tell you of my plight,
You know that there must be
Something special in the world
That finds its way to me.
So suddenly my sullen life
Has a brand-new start
All because of a human girl
Who stole my scarecrow heart.

Her name’s Linda Ann,
Who I see each day
And observe with greatest care.
I watch her love, I watch her dream,
I watch her brush her hair.
I watched her as a baby girl,
An infant and a kid,
I watched her as an angsty teen
And watched the pain she hid.
I saw all of her moments
Of squalor and defeat
I silently cheered her victories;
She kept me on my feet.
I was there for every morning,
I read her every thought
Her laughter was sun, her tears were rain,
Herself, the life I sought.

I watched her friendships blossom
And wither like a flower
And it wasn’t ‘til she left one day
That I realized her power.
I was her biggest admirer
Supporter, lover and friend
Though Linda didn’t know it
She changed me to no end.
It really isn’t easy
When you can’t talk or dance or sing
Or profess the very deepest love
Your scarecrow heart can bring.
I realized when she went away;
She’d given me a life.
She made my day within this hay
And I forgot my strife.
But now she’s gone into the world
To seek her every want
And for the rest of my limp life
She’s in my heart to haunt.

I tried to just forget her
But that’s harder than it seems
When every night, no doubt despite,
I see her in my dreams.

All my life I’ve lingered here,
Just blowing in the breeze,
But suddenly, in my muddled dream,
Oh my! I twitched my knees.

I flexed my leg, I craned my neck,
And suddenly feeling awake,
I shook the dust off my time-beaten arms
And crawled down from my stake.

I stood out in the open field,
As a chill breeze rustled my straw;
I hobbled shyly to the fence
And looked around in awe.

Here I am, Scarecrow Sam,
Standing like a man!
As quick as a knife, I raced into life
To find my Linda Ann.