Love and Death

Love and Death         it's a long climb sister         it's a long climb brother         it will be a long climb to Heaven         unless we learn to love one another Marty Schoendienst stood by the piano the slick fingers of his right hand greasing the ivory two octaves above middle c and he stood like that for maybe an hour maybe more until finally Louise Feldstone came floating down the stairs floating on a sea of crinolines beneath her grandmother's ivory wedding dress highlighted so daintily by a choker of rubies and sapphires and just as she reached the bottom and took a sharp turn into the parlour she saw Marty at the piano with a gun hanging from his left fist and before she could blink in amazement before her bright red lips could even whisper, "Stop" she saw the barrel light up and felt the cold killing whisk of only the first shot         it's a long climb sister         it's a long climb brother         it will be a long climb to Heaven         unless we learn to love one another someone died tonight but i guess it wasn't you and i'm pretty sure it wasn't me but there's the buzz of police cars everywhere outside yellow jackets chewing through the timbre of some late-night ragtime blues gnawing like a migraine at a simple song telling a sad story under a jazzy overlay the downbeat insistent and still echoing through the house still a white-hot melody bleeding from the pursed violaceous lips of a chocolate-coloured woman with a sarong wrapped indiscreetly over her thick thighs oozing out from beneath her thick belly full of lead and still she sings through the forever hallways of time a sad requiem with a sadder rhyme "Oh, sweet baby, bring that song home to me "Oh, sweet honeychile, be my Jesus and set me free"         it's a long climb sister         it's a long climb brother         it will be a long climb to Heaven         unless we learn to love one another                  Louise Feldstone's wedding was postponed pretty much indefinitely but her funeral was held almost right away and a whole lot of folks showed up even though not many wanted to stay but at the trial of Marty Schoendienst they lined up for hours and hours just to see that slick gun-toting lover who fired the fatal shot and turned Miss Louise's future into just another funeral plot until one day as the sun began to wane there was one helluva commotion in the gloom of the courthouse light when Louise's memaw reached out with an especially long cane of solid hickory or ash that found its way through the thick air of retribution and came down with a crash to smash Marty's head in two just before the jury shuffled in from the back with guilty on their minds and a five-year sentence scrawled on a spiral notepad and some said justice was thwarted that day while others were heard to say that Marty got what he deserved and would burn through eternity for the murder of Louise Feldstone be it first or second degree         it's a long climb sister         it's a long climb brother         it will be a long climb to Heaven         unless we learn to love one another if i had a penny i'd pull it from my pocket and toss it on the bed between your legs where the sheets are threadbare and smell like mustard i'd even up the ante and toss you a couple of bills maybe a couple of Andrew Jackson's if only you would tell me what's on your mind when you roll over in the night and murmur another man's name when you tumble over or under me this way or that flip me or dip me right up to the climactic final scene only to leave me squirming for delight in the theatre of passion as you skip out the back EXIT skip out just before the hero dies and collapses stage-right and in that silent moment of your leaving all i can hear is your raspy voice moaning and mumbling "It's just not the same"         it's a long climb sister         it's a long climb brother         it will be a long climb to Heaven         unless we learn to love one another Copyright © Kennedy James, 2012. All rights reserved.