Carlisle's Haul

Old Carlisle needs some money

He's running a seine out off the point

We'll all go help him though

Commercial season's closed

We might all wind up in the joint

There's bright lights out on the sand bar

Hear the donkey motor whine

the donkey man minds his business

And I know to be minding mind

I learned from the best

Hear them crabbers cuss the weather

And they cuss the government too

Nowadays crabbin' and fishin'

hanging on to a pot to piss in

Is just about the best a man can do

It's hard not to cry and cuss

when this old world is just bigger than us

And all we got is pride and trust in our kind

Old Carlisle and Uncle Freddy

Don't you know they've seen some times

They remember gas light

oyster war machine gun fights

I wished I'd known them in their prime

Now they stare out past the lights

to the darkness on the water

I don't think they're liking what they see

Long before that seine can make a circle

They'll know what the outcome's gonna be

They learned from the best

They learned from the best

So, haul that seine up in the long boat

We get to keep whatever's gilled

We'll take a bag of bunkers home

For crab bait and blue fish chum

a string of croaker for the Sunday meal

String of croaker makes a meal

It's hard not to cry and cuss

when this old world is just bigger than us

And all we got is pride and trust in our kind

Staring down that long, steep slope

We gather round and we hold out hope

Because at the end of the rope

There's a little more rope most times

Uncle Freddy said we did a good job

He's sending us home with a nine pound blue

But I don't see a truckload for the market

What's old Carlisle gonna do?

'Cept hall them lights off the sandbar

Shut the donkey motor down

Tow them longboats up the river

Let's all get on back to town

Let's all get on back to town before the warden comes

He knows better than get here before dawn

He's got that green uniform

and the kids think he's a jerk

but you know he's somebody's cousin

And we can't have a hometown boy out of work

[Chorus]