Marvin

Because his father was a man of the cross,

Who said his son was a slave to the flesh

When the spectacle ended, The charges were dropped.

Marvin was left with a hole in his chest.

He could've brought down a mountain

when he pounded on a table

or made the world collapse

for a lapse in behavior.

The pastor never spared the rod

but taught the wrath and fear of God

to stop this, godless

passion from burning

Barking from the throne while the castle falls...

He had a hand to smash the balance,

A voice like a vortex,

A temper like a terror threat,

A head like a hornet's nest

Every day the levee breaks

The flood gates, the bloody face

The black eye, baptized in shame

He brought home the battlefield

Sealed off the exits

Crawling up the walls

Absorbing the aggression

The source of his depression

The hurricane raging,

The awful tension sent his hands to the piano

forged a heaven in his heart,

but dragged him back to hell

when the arguments would start

Because his father was a man of the cross,

Who said his son was a slave to the flesh

When the argument ended, The music would stop.

Marvin was left with a hole in his chest.

He mapped the length of his son's back

with a leather belt

Sapped his strength with tongue lashings

and heavy guilt

Attacked his legs with such savage

and deadly skill

The cracks left in the punched plaster

were never filled

Patched together from fragments

a sense of himself

Advocate for compassion

and the sensual

As parents sent the young packing

to the depths of hell

The tattoo of guns clapping;

the end of the world

A marriage bed unraveling

& a wedding bell

cracked. He fell into drug habits

the empty shell

The tragic end of love's passion

a temple that fell

The collapse of such a fragile

and sensitive will

Relapsed to ugly patterns

of kill or be killed.

To combat the drunken shadow

and wrestle the swell.

Came back to the blood he battled

Where the devil dwelled

To smash the glass;

and shatter himself.

After the sudden blast

A heavy quiet fell

He asked his father "Why?"

The silence wouldn't tell.

After the gun blast

A heavy quiet fell

He asked his father "Why?"

Because his father was a man of the cross,

Who said his son was a slave to the flesh

When the argument ended, The music would stop.

Marvin was left with a hole in his chest.