Think, Thank, Thunk

Think, Thank, Thunk

[Verse 1]

Pulling weeds in the ivy patch,
Sweat running down my back,
My mind began to wander off
And jumped the grammar track.

I started there with think,
But thought just sounded clunk,
So somewhere in my head it went:

Think, thank, thunk.

[Chorus]

Think, thank, thunk,
English is a mess,
Get the conjugation right
And somehow sound incorrect.

Smell, smelled, smelt,
Which one have you brung?
If cranked is right, then tell me why
It shouldn’t be crunk?

Think, thank, thunk,
Sing it till you’re sunk,
English took a perfectly good verb
And went and got it drunk.

[Verse 2]

A bee can sting,
And yesterday it stung,
A bell can ring,
And yesterday it rung.

I sing, I sang, I’ve sung before,
That pattern works just fine,
But bring becomes brought, somehow—
Who drew that grammar line?

[Chorus]

Think, thank, thunk,
English is a mess,
Get the conjugation right
And somehow sound incorrect.

Smell, smelled, smelt,
Dreamed or maybe dreamt,
Some of these are proper words
That sound like words we invent.

Crank, cranked, crunk,
Drink, drank, drunk,
One of those is very wrong—
But which one sounds more fun?

[Verse 3]

I go, I went, I’ve gone away,
No family resemblance there,
And be turns into am and was
Like nobody seems to care.

I wake, I woke, I’ve woken,
I break, I broke, it’s broken,
But if I joke, I joked, I’ve joked—
Apparently that’s spoken.

[Bridge]

And then there’s one
I try to leave alone:

Lie… lay… lain…

Nope.

I’m going home.

You lay the book,
But yesterday you laid it,
You lie yourself upon the bed—
And yesterday you…

Wait.

Forget it.

[Chorus]

Think, thank, thunk,
English is a mess,
Right can sound completely wrong
And wrong can sound the best.

Smell, smelled, smelt,
Hang, hung, hanged,
Crank, cranked, crunk—
Now that sounds properly arranged.

[Final Verse]

Back there in the ivy patch,
Still pulling weeds for fun,
I started wondering once again
About the little verb sting.

Sting… stang… stung?
Sting… sting… stung?

Then something started buzzing
And I knew what I had done.

I disturbed a nest of bees.

They sting.

They stung.

AND IT HURT.

[Outro]

So I learned one final lesson
Before I turned and run:

You can think, thank, thunk,
You can crank, cranked, crunk,
You can lie, lay, lain—

If you really want the pain.

But I don’t conjugate
In the ivy patch
Anymore.

No, I don’t conjugate
In the ivy patch
Anymore.