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.