Tears, Beers & Slot Machines

-unknown

T’was the weekend before Christmas

In a tavern I was there,

Putting the bucks in a slot machine

And drinking that bloody beer.

I only had one daughter

She was cute and very young,

I never knew the sadness

That into my life would come.

She stood outside the tavern door

She was scarcely six years old,

No socks, just sneakers on her feet

As she shivered in the cold.

The tears streamed down her frozen cheeks

As she called out loud and clear,

”Please Daddy, come home with me,

And don’t drink no more beer.”

“Please Daddy come and stay with me,

You know I love you so

With Mommy home upon the floor,

I have no place to go.”

“Mommy, she’s not feeling well,

And she has gone asleep.

I tried to wake her Daddy

Bu I’m too small and weak.”

Her daddy couldn’t hear her cries

As he played the slot machines.

His eyes glued to the spinning wheels

While his daughter called again.

No answer still and the spinning wheels

Shrouded her sweet young voice.

And his daughter sat down so tired and cold

On a doorstep filled with ice.

“Daddy can you hear me

It’s very cold out here.”

But her daddy played the video game

And drank down one more beer.

A man looked through the tavern door

When he saw the little girl outside.

“Will you tell my daddy that I’m here?

Tell him Mommy died.”

The teardrops down his cheeks did roll,

As the stranger clasped her hand.

And once inside the tavern door

She to her daddy ran.

***********************************

That night was dark and dreary

And his wife could take no more.

She took an overdose of pills

And died upon the floor.

There’s a lesson to be learned my friends

From slot machines and beer,

And families left alone at home

By husbands you do not care.

I learned my lesson really well

And paid a heavy price.

And lost the person that I loved

Who I took form my wife.