For Kerri and Christopher and Me

In my heart, I dream of being a lyricist. Nothing fancy, I just enjoy the game of putting different words to the melodies of familiar songs.
I have been working on "She'll be comin' 'round the mountain when she comes," which I sing to Christopher every time I put him to sleep (about 4-6 times a day). It takes about 7 minutes to go from full-out crying to full-on sleeping, so I needed some more verses.
I have been making up a bunch of new ones to lengthen the song, and now I have a sort of story... Here they are, along with the real ones...


She'll be comin' 'round the mountain when she comes
She'll be drivin' six white horses
The dogs'll start to barkin'
The old rooster will start crowing
The cows will start their mooing
We will all go out to meet her
She will hug and kiss our babies
She will pinch the chillen's cheeks
She will put her red dress on
The neighbors will come callin'
We'll have a big ol' party
We'll all have chicken and dumplins'
We will sing and dance all night
Cousin Bo will play the fiddle
She will dance a jig with Granpa
She will gossip with Aunt Docia
She'll tell jokes with Uncle Henry
Uncle Joe will share his moonshine
We won't go to bed till morning

I always think of Kerri when I sing it, because we have sung it with the kids on play dates. And I miss her these days since it's so hard to get together when one of the kids is a baby and I have to work all the time that Tony is home...