Snakes, Sinners & Beautiful Losers

 

All the snakes and sinners

scarf their VD dinners

in the back of Leonard’s caravan

while the dodgy lyric thief

provides some flat relief

in the key of ‘pee’

destroying ‘I’m Your Man’

 

They get tangled in a twister

with mercy’s little sister

as the sailor sips his wine

and soaps their feet

they’re blindly falling down

on his rusted thorny crown

and the prophet’s pusher

boots it down the street

 

Comes the sweep machine

It’s closing time on the scene

but the now just gets repeated

now and then

tomorrow’s just today

standing in the way

everybody knows who and what

is waiting past the when

 

Can't shift the limo in reverse

so they left behind the nurse

because she refused

to wear mourning black

they locked her in the van

oh well, so long Marianne

they'll just laugh and cry

until she pays them back

 

The partisan opened fire

on every bird up on the wire

a feathered frenzy

rained down from above

and every single rat in

the borough of Manhattan

is dying proof

there ain’t no cure for love

 

Out the prophet passed

from the debts he had amassed

poor Leonard turned

and uttered one last sigh

as the gospel ghost revival

failed to hasten his survival

they sang, ‘hey

that’s no way to say goodbye’

 

The eulogies were spent

in some strange woman’s tent

made of torn blue raincoats

without a decent liner

the weeping widow was unnerved

until a light repast was served

of tea and oranges

all the way from China

 

And the vermin remain loyal

to the sermons from Mount Royal

of the prophet

who struck the secret chord

left them with a major gift

that a minor could not lift

though none of them

will ever please the lord

 

Poor Suzie ain’t that hot

but still she has a shot

there’s always someone

drunk enough to do her

snakes and sinners in the grass

can kiss her half crazy ass

with a glory amen

fuck you hallelujah

 

 

                      s. paul   (Mar. 2021)