Gallo and Miguel
Sent away to a boarding school of pain,
Under the Benedictine order of guilt, fear and shame.
Me and my brother, Steve, in a far away move,
With the lllinois rough boys with something to prove.
Where com was king and the sting of the prefects ruled.
They shaved my head, swore they’d straighten me out,
Cage the wild spirit that was raging all about.
It didn’t take long to step on some toes;
Land me in the doghouse where involuntary solitary grows, and eats at your soul.
Gallo was from Aruba, Miguel from old Mexico.
Third Worlders in the land of the snow white show.
Un-phased by the gringos, so cool and multi-lingual,
No one touched their space even when they had to mingle;
Two Latin brothers apart from the others in that jungle.
Like a godsend they took me under their wing;
Made me a friend, helped .me be, a human being.
Speaking dirty Spanish, blowing smoke rings,
[CHORUS] Gallo and Miguel, you broke the choke hold of the jingo man’s spell.
Gallo and Miguel, fellow mates at the gates tempting fates to rebel- Gallo and Miguel.
At mid-term whenlessthanhalfof my sentence remained,
War broke out between the border rats and day dog gangs.
This day dog, Beckerini, way bigger than me,
Called me out to battle in a bathroom arena meet.
The sell-out crowd was loud predicting my defeat.
But on the night before the fight Gallo taught me self-defense;
The element of surprise, how to shake his confidence.
The fight was won before it begun, and Father Hugh Crowe came and took me to my penance – [CHORUS]
Decades later when I think about the places I’ve been,
The locations and relations that made me what I am.
When character is formed, fears overcome;
The spirit is born, the soul unstrung.
Back to the time when the mind first awakes and finds freedom.
There they were, those two amigos of mind;
Human bridges on the ridges of a troubled time.
Lights in the nights of an early circle of hell,
I’d have never made it with this story to tell without – Gallo and Miguel. [CHORUS]
Words and Music by: C. Michael Stout, January 2005