The Legend of Johnny Brown

‘Twas a sleepy little village Johnny Brown was born in,

but fully grown, bright city lights began to beckon him.

So Johnny set off to find his fortune and his fame,

leaving far behind those whose love he’d claimed.

Mary wrote him often, the girl he’d left back home,

along with Ma and Sister Sadie, all three full of hope

their letters would reach him and soon he would see,

the bright lights couldn’t offer him the love they gave so totally.

But love wasn’t what Johnny was after, and the letters never came,

for Johnny had already gone, continually searching for his fame.

Father Time ticked off the years, ignoring Johnny’s plight,

‘til what had been a young man's dawn was now nearing night.

He finally grasped the total cost of his elusive search for fame,

an awareness that left him broken, full of burning shame.

‘Twas a sleepy little village, the same as years before,

the morning he arrived and knocked on Mary’s door.

A lady shook her head with pity on her face,

“' Twas but a month before,” she said; Mary’s wake had taken place.

Johnny made it to the graveyard and, slowly kneeling down,

he found his fortune laid to rest deep beneath the ground.

There was Ma and Sister Sadie, and his lovely Mary, too.

He wept for all he’d lost, into the dust beneath his shoe.

A stranger ambling by noticed a figure atop a hill

and saw, on closer look, an old man ever still.

Johnny had finally found his fortune, but alas, his only claim to fame,

is the stone topping that hill; the one which bears his name.