Terry Greenwood

Terry was a farmer in southwest PA;
With his good wife, Kathy, made their own way.
Worked for everything they had; did what they wanted to do.
The suspenders he wore were red, white and blue.

Truck driver from McKeesport, his nickname was “Crow;”
Staying positive and decent, the only road maps he’d know.
They’d take off on their Harleys, just to ride like the wind;
North, south, east and west, then back home again.

He loved his farm and his family and life;
Did no harm, he knew wrong from right.
From his birth he did all that he could;
With mother earth and creation he stood.
A quiet life in the country was good, for Terry Greenwood.

In Daisytown for three decades, livin’ his dream,
When the noise and the poison, Dominion Energy came.
He refused to sign a lease, told them frackers no way.
But the drillers were dictators, who said, “You don’t have a say.”

Waste water spilled in his fields and his ponds;
Eleven cattle killed, still-born or deformed.
Dreams shattered and torn, drinkin’ water turned to muck;
And when he called the DEP, they said “It’s just farmers’ luck.”

One of the first to speak out against the fracking morass;
He said, “Water’s more important than gas.”
From Wyoming, to Wisconsin to DC,
He told his story with simply honesty.
With the harmed and the truth there he stood – Mr. Terry Greenwood.

Terry died on a warm summer day;
A rare form of brain cancer took him away.
We can’t prove fracking killed him, which chemical’s to blame;
When greed and money trump health, the outcome’s the same.

He loved the earth and his family and life;
For what it’s worth, he knew wrong from right.
Though his body is buried and gone,
His spirit and his cause will live on;
Doing all that we can and we should – like Terry Greenwood, for Terry Greenwood.