Prodigal Son

Staring at a cross of splintered wood

My sins washed away through Christ's own blood

All my blessings gone, though my mind it wanders on

Going home in my memory….

Between the years and the miles

I am broken and down

Bless me father, where do I begin

On my hands and my knees,

I go crawling back home,

To find absolution within

Eighteen years old, but not yet a man

With misplaced ideologies

Recognizing only God as my equal

Left home and disgraced my family

With a dream in my head and a restless soul

Sensing I would soon be free

I took to heart my granddads fables

They made up the core of my identity

For eight long years I tramped through the fallout

Of nuclear society

The underclass

Forgotten mass in a nation of revelry

Fare thee well, my old dear friend

The road goes ever on, but I am going home

Back to where it all began

In a filthy rundown tenement

I set out to spread God's name

I thought the word would start the fire

And my voice would fan the flame

But I soon learned that in this hopelessness

A great many things went unsaid

My first lesson was that good intentions

Aren't gonna keep you warm and fed

With no recourse I took a job at the packing house

No one who I could edify

As my dreams like leaves in autumn

Disappeared before my eyes