Kerry was my best friend
From grammar school on
I still think about him often
Even now, though long gone
We hung together all the time
Shot hoops and talked all things
Wondered on the ways of girls
And if the Knicks could win
Kerry had good fashion taste
Connecticut preppy ways
Encouraged me to step up my game
In early high school days
Kerry was my first drinking buddy
Started freshman year
Kerry was bolder than I was
About asking guys for beer
Kerry wasn’t the toughest guy
But he had a lot to say
I helped him out more than once
When bullies tried to play
And more than once when I was down
Kerry rallied to my side
Pulled me out of my basement room
And forced me to survive
Trojan Knights was our basketball team
In the high school intramural league
Me and Kerry were champions our junior year
We took down all the senior teams
When I went away to college
Kerry went to work and stayed home
I’d see him on Christmas and summer breaks
Increasingly alone
When I came back home during those years
Kerry was drinking hard
Always wanted to hang at Mountain View
The cheapest drinking bar
Now, I was fucked up in those days
Doing drugs and drinking too
But I could tell Kerry was sliding dark
And there wasn’t much I could do
Kerry caused an accident
Near the package store where he’d been
He wasn’t drunk, but didn’t see the motorcycle
When he pulled out onto Route 10
Now the guy was suing Kerry
Who had no insurance at the time
Case dragged on for a couple of years
The never-ending crime
Kerry could see the legal writing
On the wall, and so he fled
Went off to Chicago
Where his brother gave him a bed
But he fucked that up and got pushed out
Had nowhere left to go
Couldn’t hold a steady job
Welcome to the streets of Chicago
Off and on the next few years
I’d hear an occasional crumb
Kerry’s still out on the streets of Chicago
Living like a bum
In the Spring of 1985
I was stationed at Little Rock
Checked the scheduling board one morning
And had a little shock
There was a three-day mission to Chicago
Airdrop support for the National Guard
First time in my four years there
We had a mission to that town
I was leaving for Germany soon
Asked the scheduler to throw me a bone
He scheduled me for the Chicago trip
And I got right on the phone
Got a hold of Kerry’s brother
He said Kerry was in a psychiatric ward
I asked him how much longer
He said at least two weeks more
In Chicago, I had one afternoon off
Called the psych ward for visiting hours
Caught the L train into town
Found the big building on a corner
Kerry was looking good
We talked just like old times
The Celtics were in the NBA playoffs
And the common room TV worked just fine
Kerry was running a betting pool
For his fellow patients to play
He got the head nurse to let me stay past visiting hours
Until the end of the basketball game
Kerry knew he had been fucking up
Two weeks sober now, said he would change
He had his eye on a new job
And then can find a place to stay
I gave him $500 cash
To help him to his feet
He told me he would pay me back
I told him just get free
I walked away feeling better
Kerry seemed good, just like my old friend
But when Kerry got back on the streets
Not sure how the wind did bend
One year later, or so, when I was in Germany
Got a letter with the news
Kerry is no longer with us
Forevermore my blues
Kerry died homeless on the streets of Chicago
Blunt force trauma to the head
I’d hoped that he could turn a corner
Instead, the worst of dread
I think of all our good times
We shared real times of joy
But life marched on relentlessly
As we played with foolish toys
Kerry is still my best friend
From grammar school through the rest
I wish I could have held his hand
When he took his final breath
Waipahu Bob 