Strong Drinks for Heavy Hearts

written by Jake Stilson

He’d been grinding ears nearly 40 years 

when the grain elevator closed

Since 10th grade any plans he made 

He made around that post

He wasn’t ever a T total man 

but I never saw him drunk

Well that was the plan with a fifth in his hand 

on the tailgate of his truck

When they locked the doors for the last time 

and everybody sat around outside

Strong drinks for heavy hearts anything with a kick’ll do

Getting by on 90 proof

I’ll take the corn the wheat and rye

Stick with the tried and true

Getting by on 90 proof

Ginny work the late night bar crowd 

Shift at the old café

She’d grab a drunk by the collar and the belt 

and toss’em like a bale of hay

When a fryer shorted out in the middle of the night 

and burned the joint to the ground 

she pulled a chair from a pile of ashes 

and took a pint of whiskey down 

And that’s OK, so say we all 

you make your way, you make the call

Strong drinks for heavy hearts anything with a kick’ll do

Getting by on 90 proof

I’ll take the corn the wheat and rye

Stick with the tried and true

Getting by on 90 proof