ROADKILL PREACHER

Just this once upon a time, I got another one in mind
I’ll tell you bout the Roadkill Preacher’s tale
There was this crazy preacher man, crazy as a monkey’s hand
He had a mansion built up on a hill
He threw a party every night from early dusk to early light
The men got drunk lied about their fear
The ladies shed their satin shoes and kicked their heels up to the blues
The preacher watched them like headlights on a dear

It was late on a Monday night that Josephine the preacher’s wife
Lost her mind, snaking back around
She ducked into the kitchenette to smoke a funny cigarette
And burned that preacher’s mansion to the ground
I heard he said he didn’t care
Sat there in a velvet chair and told his guests to dine out on the lawn
They sat and laughed and ate and joked and watched the black smoke
The fire burned out about the break of dawn
The people left, the night was dead
The preacher’s wife grabbed her head
And fell into the ashes on the ground
He kissed his wife and turned away and walked into the coming day
He never came back to that little town
The preacher walked the days muttering the time away
He picked up some boots in a garbage can
He stood on cars in parking lots and preached to empty shopping carts
His brain was turning slowly into sand

They said he roamed the country roads in search of possums, skunks and toads
The roadkill preacher dizzy with desire
And from the stories I am told he blessed their little mangled souls
And scraped them up and cooked them on a fire
He bathed himself in raccoon smoke
And sewed himself a hound dog coat
And cried for every creature that was killed
He said the souls of little things could help a man to grow some wings
And fly up to that, to that mansion on the hill

In the morning, in the fog across the road to get a dog
A big rig came and ran that preacher down
He died there on the bloody road and left the world a little cold
And on the wings of little things to heaven he was bound