ADAM REFLECTS

A year ago
or a couple of months
that felt like a dozen
because they weighed so much
there was a knock on my door.
Don't we all get knocks on the door?
Don't we all hear
woodpeckers rap rapturous
drill little deaths into the tree of life
that signify and effect the fact
that nothing that was will be as before?
Don't we all get knocks on the door?

I answered it.
It was an Irishman
son of famine, superstition
on my land
and I despised him.
Don't we all despise the poor?
Those walking wants those living lacks
that signify and effect the fact
that the garden's gone
and the world's gone bad
and all our wealth is not our own?
Don't we all despise the poor?

But he asked in Christ's name
so I said yes,
spend the night, rest,
be a guest.
Haven't we been here before?
Haven't we all put up a fence around our yard
composed of expectations
to keep the peace,
to keep the nation,
then a neighbor
shatters all this
with a word.
Don't we cringe to hear the word?

But in the middle of the night
his fever struck,
soaked the guest bed with his death sweat
grabbed my cuffs
and then he called for a priest.
Haven't we all called for a priest?
In darkest days and no-good nights,
in stomach pains and dying wives,
don't we crumble
don't we cry
for daddy to say
it'll be alright,
my son, it'll be alright.

BREAKING WITH HIS REFLECTION ADAM SCREAMS

Hell no, I wouldn't let a priest into my home
How could I look my wife in the eye
with a hand in the hand of the whore of Babylon?

Why marry such a virgin valley but to reject
the habits of the Catholics, their ashes, their drinking?

No mediation comes from fat old men,
there's no comfort in the bread
it's Christ alone, it's Christ alone
I am alone.

BREAKING THROUGH THE SCREAMING THE CELESTIAL VOICE IN CHORUS SINGS

(Praise him, I
praise him in the morning, AM
praise him in the evening, ALONE
praise him all the time, I
for he alone is holy, AM
he alone is worthy, ALONE
he alone is only, I
he is Christ alone.) AM