THE DAY AFTER Poverty’s Reign [Verse 1] Ninety miles to Kemp, Texas And a lifetime in between Two old boys who once knew everything Now comparing what we’ve seen His house was fighting back the years The years were winning, I could tell That dog had left a few opinions And the air could raise the dead I thought about the road back home And the bed I’d left behind Then I saw my old friend Shon again And the road slipped from my mind [Chorus] So here’s to the day after And the nights we somehow get through To the friends who don’t need fixing Just somebody sitting there with you You can call it Christian kindness You can call it paying your dues But a sacrifice ain’t a sacrifice When there’s nothing else you’d rather do [Verse 2] We burned the brush beneath the stars And let the old days roll Pool halls, smoke, and cheap philosophy And laughter taking its toll He’d taken every wrong turn Like a man who knew the way Life kept dealing him the hard hand He kept showing up to play There were years inside that double-wide That I could never understand But he was standing in his own front yard A proud and battered man [Chorus] So here’s to the day after And the nights we somehow get through To the friends who don’t need fixing Just somebody sitting there with you You can call it Christian kindness You can call it paying your dues But a sacrifice ain’t a sacrifice When there’s nothing else you’d rather do [Verse 3] Virgil had his Bible And Charlene had faith to spare They believed the Lord was watching And they tried to show they cared I never quite got comfortable With the certainty they knew But I learned a thing about their faith That maybe still holds true You don’t have to see the heavens Or agree on who’s above To stand beside a fallen friend And call the act of kindness love [Bridge — half-spoken, darkly amused] Now when the poor inherit the earth And the old elite come down I hope they keep a guest list For the fools who stuck around I’ll claim I knew a king once Before he wore the crown He had a dog, a battered couch And a house that might burn down [Final Chorus] Here’s to the day after To the smoke that disappears To the friends who knew us young and wild And still can find us here No halo and no sermon No grand gesture to prove Just an old friend in a hard place And an old friend who came through You can call it Christian kindness You can call it what you choose But a sacrifice ain’t a sacrifice When there’s nothing else you’d rather do [Outro — spoken over fading guitar] Ninety miles back home. A little smoke in my clothes. A few less nostril hairs. And one more reason to be glad I’m not rich in friends.
