WARNETS

[Intro — spoken]
Follow-up to Night Fight.
Told you the story sideways last time.
Chickens were safe. Dog was tied.
He'd a run 'em down like it was open season.
Let me try that verse again.
This one's for Dookie.

[Verse 1]
Started my night with a wire and a fence,
French curses spillin', bilingual by tense.
Coffee jolt burnin' through the flannel and vest,
peeled off the wet clothes right in front of the nest.
Never heard 'em comin' — thought the buzz was the land,
till a thousand tiny lighters went to lightin' up a man.
I took off in the dark like a spooked-out horse,
adrenaline steerin', no known course —
till I heard him. That's when the world came back.

[Pre-Chorus]
BARKS in the black.
BARKS in the black.
That's my Dookie. That's my dog.
Tied to the arch by the woodpile log.
I roped him there 'cause he chased the birds —
chickens were safe. Dog wasn't. I turned.

[Chorus]
How 'BOUT Dookie —
how 'bout WARNETS —
how 'bout a hornet just WARN a man?
Say pardon partner, we're in your air,
say buzz off cowboy, we didn't know you were there —
naw. They lit me up like a dartboard fan.
So I turn around swingin' through their whole damn plan.
How 'bout Dookie? How 'bout WARNETS?
That's the sequel. That's the answer, man.

[Verse 2]
Fingers fat as sausages, fumblin' at the clip,
hornets in my collar sayin' YOU AIN'T LEAVIN' YET, kid.
Every sting a stamp — hornets writin' checks
my ankle can't cash, my back's a wreck.
But that dog — sixty pounds of shakin' whines —
looked at me like I was the answer to his lines.
Snapped the leash. Scooped him up.
Two shapes runnin' silhouette across the truck.
Made it to the porch. Slammed the screen.
Both of us breathin' like we'd just been mean
to the whole night sky. And the whole night sky
was still buzzin' on the other side.

[Bridge]
Coulda left him. Coulda let him go.
Nobody woulda known but the moon and the crow.
But if you tie a thing up, you owe that thing back —
that's the whole prairie code, that's the pact.
When I was cussin' at the sky and nobody could hear,
Dookie heard. That dog was my ear.
So when it was HIM tied and the sky came down,
you damn right I ran back through that hornet town.

[Final Chorus — half-time]
How 'BOUT Dookie —
how 'bout WARNETS —
how 'bout a hornet just WARN a man?
Turns out the answer was in the dog all along.
He was the reason I wrote the song.
How 'bout Dookie. How 'bout WARNETS.
This is the retaliation. This is the plan.

[Outro]
Fence still busted. Ankle still sore.
Dog's asleep on the flannel by the door.
How 'bout Dookie.
That's the whole damn song.