The Champion Poem by John Yaws

As I walked in the door of my motel-
The first thing I heard was the phone,
The next was the voice of my mother-
She told me, 'Your daddy is gone.

It's taken a week just to find you.
We buried him three days ago.
You haven't had time for your family,
You're in love with that damn rodeo.'

Melissa was here for the funeral-
She left the kids home with her sis.
She said she was really heart-broken...
'I thought sure he'd be here for this.'

'She loved you, but you loved another...
So finally she had to go.
Sad that she played second-fiddle...
To a mistress you called Rodeo.'

I found your daddy last Friday...
He'd been out feeding the stock.
He was face down in hay and manure,
His face wore a pained look of shock.

The doctor allowed he'd expected...
He might die from a heart attack.
But his heart died in him a long time ago,
When he saw that you wouldn't be back.

Face down in a barnyard, I reckon-
Is the way that a cowboy should go.
When the kid that he wasted his life on...
Forsook him to go rodeo.

So ride, boy, for that's what you've chosen...
Some day you'll be sorry you did.
Forsaking a woman who loved you...
Your mom and your dad and two kids.

The title's the goal you're pursuing...
The god you're determined to seek.
But, son, you won't ever be Champion-
I buried the Champion last week.'