Ruby Blues and the Preacher Man

starry-eyed Messiahs are preaching
kiss the cross
and save a friend
       ....... repent
for your multitude of sins

in the heat of a city street
someone is praying
              and abstaining
while another is living
wicked
       and weak

              praying for the soul ...
                     be saved....
is that the human goal?

is there a rule written down
in disappearing ink
dictating who will go to Heaven
or burn forever in their own
              private
                     Hell

are the numbers branded on our souls?
preacher-men are born with the ability
to preach with humility

drink and screw
              with all the Ruby-Blues

spread the word...spread fertility

in the nearest barroom
where human waste awaits
              and slowly withers
and silently
              stagnates
mankind prays to the bottle
while he smokes-brain-cells-dead

and the pious walk right in
                     to preach about the ways of sin

pick up a guitar and sing a holy song
call it country-western-gospel
without a pulpit or lectern
they tell you "I understand"

       amen

              and now you need to move along

little echoes from the past
and childhood Sunday School
black-patent-leather-shiny shoes
       tapping in rhythm
to the cadence in delivery
of a sermon loud and scary
a place for old hearts that believe
       and too-wise-kids getting weary

the preacher spends his free time
down at Ruby Blues
common knowledge of all the Christians
       blessed by the lesser fools

counseling her

       he tells the congregation

does that explain his shoes?
under
       her
              bed

moonbeams.......bad dreams
nothing ever what it seems

amen...amen ..forgive us for our sins

blessed be....sinner me

save a soul make me free
faceless men in the dark
murdering rapist in the park

shiny shoes...bare feet

who's the leader
who dictates the rules
written in hour-glass sand
is it the silver-tongued sinners?
or is it the holy-preacher-man
       without
              his
                     shoes

          over at Madam Ruby Blues?

judgement-day-hell-fire-damnation
comes without a warning

       sinners
              catch
                     a star
Bible thumping...
              hip pumping
tainted-preacher-man

              puts on a collar.... and his shoes
                     each
                            and
                                   every morning
              shifting sands....
Amen



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