The Revelation of Ma Rainey
in the choking throat of tunnel black, where darkness spilled now floats the smoke, where children gloat and joke and balk and walk across the barren track now talk of never turning back, each eye aglow beneath each cloak. The fire of the sun now kindles, through windows, wires, lights and lines of seraphim breath in spindles shine. it is where the adder hasn't stung, where the ladder has no rungs, where banners hung and banners pinned, banners pregnant with the wind, all speak of men who sinned and clung to what's begun and what begins.
a rain of frogs, a rain of carp, the hills beneath a graying tarp, the squeal of trains, the pluck of harps, the sucking breeze, the shattered knees, the bold eruptions quick and sharp, and cold corruption fills the veins and stains the heart.
and banjo hymns and gospel shelters and broken limbs and summer swelters and pearl eyes above the golden teeth and peddlers with their sold beliefs among the faces, silhouettes, and whiskey chasers, cigarettes, with straw hats placing bets and flasks and jugs of liquor full...and stray cats bat the mask of music playing through a nigger's skull.
a rain of frogs, a rain of carp, the hills beneath a graying tarp, the squeal of trains, the pluck of harps, the sucking breeze, the shattered knees, the bold eruptions quick and sharp, and cold corruption fills the veins and stains the heart.
and banjo hymns and gospel shelters and broken limbs and summer swelters and pearl eyes above the golden teeth and peddlers with their sold beliefs among the faces, silhouettes, and whiskey chasers, cigarettes, with straw hats placing bets and flasks and jugs of liquor full...and stray cats bat the mask of music playing through a nigger's skull.