Bervis and Opal got it right!

*T’was the eve b’for Christmas in Ozark hill country

When Bervis came out with the box not so empty.

Opal was grinnin’ she knew it was time

To burn the debt history, in her hand, the boxed wine.

*The night was upon them, the neighborhood still

Bervis opened his moonshine and gulped a big swill.

The good and the bad, the ugly there too

had all been recorded, and now become due.

*The decade was over, the new in their sights

No obnoxious phone calls disturbing their nights.

The thoughts were all kept in their hillbilly heads,

of the children, the grandkids, and crowded bunkbeds.

*The only thing left now, the home that they live in

The furniture, groceries, and clothes they been given.

But this mattered not, on this evenin so cold

When Bervis and Opal declared themselves bold.

*They fear not collectors, old age or poverty

Or the junkyard which soon would surround their small property.

The two are together, no matter the weight

Of the financial future, or lack of, (their state.)

*You can’t take from nothing, that which aint there

And they grinned as their history rose in the night air.

*Bervis and Opal know the secret of life

This tired hillbilly and his darling sweet wife.

If yer breathin God’s air, and see the sunrise

There’s a good chance in heaven, you’ll meet with the wise.

*So don’t let this news they say of recession

Throw dark clouds across this here Christmas lesson.

If a babe in a manger can grow to be King

His great Father’s Love gives you near the same thing.

*A mansion or shanty, dirt streets or of gold

When you git to heaven, the young and the old

Will be there to greet you, like Opal and Bervis

And shout Hallelujiah!, in that heavenly service!