I Played Everything

I played everything
on a blues harp
made from the ashes
of a revolutionary brother

everybody said:
that boy is old
get him out
of the cold

let him play
as he may
everything
everything

so I played
from nineteen in the morning
just what they sayed
everything I played

came out to be
that what I played
didn’t take
in they minds

said I didn’t know
what they wanted
gotto come up
from the bottom

of the houses
I been playin’
they holler I
ain’t got great

told me to run
and I did
one by one
the people started comin’ around

see me play
the dusty boy
don’t know nothin’
about everything


never quit
keep on playin’
gotto do
what they say

getting’ better
workin’ harder
to play everything
in the day away

boys start comin’
then they runnin’
to hear me play
the day away

now I play
everybody listens
and they say
I ain’t got great

sweetest noise
I’ve ever heard
when they tell me
not to play

everything is gray
when I play
they hear the songs
of the day

I don’t mind
when they tell me
what I ain’t
supposed to play

cause I play
and I play
everything
every day