What that boy lacked was
a heavy dose of old-fashioned ways,
a limitation on his mouth and mind,
the strap of the covenant and Biblical bread.
Nature left without a course
grows wild and out of bounds,
seeks perverse corners,
needs direction for its crazy moves,
the preacher said.
They gave him this gift of love,
a love so tough
it locked him in his room
and he spread it across the wall
with his daddy’s two-ten
“Guess I just ain’t much good”
his note read.