“That’s What I Got”

 

c. 2025 Rod Ice

All rights reserved

(5-25)

 

 

Got a four-barrel carb

And a shadow ‘cross the prison yard

A Danelectro Guitarlin

A yearning to go where I’ve never been

That’s what I got

Mmm hmm

 

Got a ’57 Panhead

A desire to make my daily bread

A kickstand down on the street

Bootheels bumping concrete

That’s what I got

Yeah, that’s what I got

 

A supercharged 396

A timeline made with drumsticks

A poem pounded on jailhouse walls

A sad refrain of storm squalls

That’s what I got

Mmm hmm

 

GG Allin at the end

And Lemmy was my closest friend

I read Kerouac in the loo

And figured out what to do

That’s what I got

Yeah, that’s what I got

 

Looking hard into the sun

Bent by what I should’ve done

A trick of fate, now revealed

A set of Cragar, custom wheels

That’s what I got

Mmm hmm

 

I heard a laugh when I confessed

That living was a random guess

The priest rubbed his beads for luck

Said, ‘Roll the dice, you huckle buck!’

That’s what I’ve got

Yeah, that’s what I’ve got

 

I met Bob Dylan in a dream

And heard a crowd wail and scream

At a Beatles show in shanty town

Getting down with James Brown

That’s what I got

Mmm hmm

 

Something made me want to cry

President Kennedy, destined to die

I knew it was a work of fate

Like fried chicken on my dinner plate

That’s what I got

Yeah, that’s what I got

 

Dark Shadows on TV

In that coffin was a part of me

I stayed up late with eyes of red

A transistor radio by my bed

That’s what I got

Mmm hmm

 

Nobody was the wiser

I became a vinyl record miser

A kid to be seen not heard

A fool for Beat-Era, spoken words

That’s what I got

Yeah, that’s what I got

 

Something old, something new

A tuning peg like a thumbscrew

Floating on a sea of sorrows

But there’s work to do tomorrow

That’s what I got

Mmm hmm

 

Hiding out under stairs

My parents never knew I was there

In the darkest, deepest shelter

I came alive, helter-skelter

That’s what I got

Yeah, that’s what I got

 

My phone rings for naught

I’m too busy and overwrought

Thinking blindly through the maze

Grooving on a purple haze

That’s what I got

Mmm hmm

 

If I had a key that fits

I’d bust out of bogus bullshit

But that lock won’t release

So I’m stuck inside eternal peace

That’s what I got

Yeah, that’s what I got

 

One last calm critique

Before I take a final leap

A run below the eagle’s path

And a swim around the hotel bath

That’s what I got

Mmm hmm

 

I used to be so afraid

Of forgetting murmured words of praise

But now it seems quite a drag

To write them on a shopping bag

That’s what I got

Yeah, that’s what I got

 

If you read these words and grin

Don’t call it an original sin

I think it must be true

That the joy of saints is tried and true

That’s what I got

Mmm hmm

 

Somewhere in this universe

Is a sum equal to a beggar’s worth

I might have found the way to go

But move along like a fading shadow

That’s what I got

Yeah, that’s what I got

 

I’m a shadow

That’s what I got