cleaning our christian souls

oh,
it's only a simple song
that came along
well before
the once upon a time
i fought in an ancient Asian war
wearing a proud hat and a big brown bag
over my head
that might not have been the proper size
but i was already too young to realize
what the news frequently said
that, yes, i was already quite dead
and the man
sitting in his big white house
joked that i was just another little white mouse
serving at his discretion serving my time
looking for my street seller
selling a dime
like a poor broke little Jackie Horner
hustling on a busy American corner
his long beard asking me "What's up?"
and i taking an unsteady drink from the communal cup
rushing for home
which was no longer there
just like my childhood Sampson hair
falling from the small town barbershop chair
where
for twenty five cents
we smoked our cheap cigarettes inside army tents
cleaning our christian souls
of all the loose women and immoral black holes;
I'm Waiting for the Man and memories of childhood:
Bobby Darin and Sandra Dee
being swept out to a raging sea
on a raft of bamboo spikes and the salty 8 track
never to be found again and never coming back
like Frank Lloyd Wright and his famous prairie cans;
the truth in the American desert is the unrelentingly dry sands
and the perpetual thirst:
i still don't know the answer to the question,
"Who's on first?"
but might eventually want to know
which television game show
i need to see
before being spanked on the Catholic Bishop's horny knee
as you sit and smile and laugh and shower
i count my days in cotton bales each passing hour!
and there's a decision to be made about Columbus and his sailing crew:
did they do what they were supposed to do?
on the islands sinking
what were they thinking
wearing Spanish leather boots while walking on the steamy shore?
those native huts of Hispaniola never needed a door
but the vaults at Fort Knox are built of bones and blood,
and the southern shacks of sharpened sticks and mud;
the tall men in their plantation suits carry all the keys
so,
remember your manners and always say please.