Textbook Case

He was a textbook case There was no doctor in the house When his aunt said leave He left quiet as a mouse He robbed from the poor He gave to himself Looked in the glass And raised a toast to his health He was a textbook case But he could not read at all He took a girl to eat And he ran his fingers through her hair When a car honked at her He broke the antenna right there When she walked she swayed Like a tall stalk of corn When she kissed him she wished That he had never been born He was a textbook case But he could not read at all Textbook case All fall down He was lost in space Headed straight to the ground Now he lies around the yard Like a dog without a bowl Starin' at the sun Dreamin' of parole The prison shrink just looked one time And he shook his head "Textbook case" Was all that he said He was a textbook case But he could not read at all