Jubilee - Natalie Merchant
He fills the flower vases
trims the candle bases
takes small change from the poor box
Tyler has the key
He takes nail and hammer
to tack up the banner
of felt scraps glued together reading
"Jesus Lives In Me"
Alone in the night he mocks
the words of the preacher
"God is feeling your every pain"
Repair the Christmas stable
restore the plaster angel
her lips begin to crumble
and her robes begin to peel
For Bible study
in the church basement
hear children Gospel citing
Matthew 17:15
Alone in the night he mocks
the arms of the preacher
raised to the ceiling
"tell God your pain."
To him the world's defiled
in Lot, he sees a likeness there
he swears
this Sodom will burn down
Near Sacred Blood there's a dance hall
where Tyler Glen saw
a black girl and a white boy
kissing shamelessly
Black hands on white shoulders white hands on black shoulders dancing...and you know what's more
He's God's mad disciple
a righteous title
for the Word he heard
he so misunderstood
Though simple minded
a crippled man
to know this man is to fear this man
to shake when he comes
Wasn't it God that let Puritans in Salem
do what they did to the unfaithful?
Boys at the Jubilee slowly sink into
brown bag whiskey drinking
and reeling on their feet
girls at the Jubilee
in low-cut dresses
yield to the caresses
and the man-handling
Black hands on white shoulders
white hands on black shoulders
dancing...and you know what's more
Through the tall blades of grass
he heads for the Jubilee
with a bucket in his right hand
full of rags soaked in gasoline
He lifts the shingles in the dark
and slips the rags there underneath
he strikes a matchstick on the box side
and watches the rags ignite
He climbs the bell tower of the Sacred Blood
to watch the flames rising higher toward the trees
sirens wailing now toward the scene
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