They say he is my ancestor- I still don't like him much.
They say the place he lived is not that far away.
His neighbors lived miles from here.
He said, "They're animals in suits and ties with cities and skyscrapers.
They are not artists like me."
John felt the need to create.
He said, "My first boy child will be a masterpiece."
He laid the woman down by a creek.
She was shaking like a wavering reed.
She was trembling but she never said a thing.
John never heard a preacher-man preach.
He never saw the preacher-man twist his sheets.
He was working in the field.
She hated John, but all he could see.
Her skin was smooth like the surface of the water:
nature moved underneath it all.
John said, "God made work, not love."
It wasn't long until he was done.
He felt it was his finest accomplishment.
The preacher was wrestling with his conscience
because he sowed his seed among the rocks.
She was pregnant for a month before John knew it.
John always thought himself a scientist,
but he knew new life was not the realm of science.
He left for town in search of a philosopher.
The preacher knew too well the narrow road.
He confessed this sin at midnight, and tapped on the window.
The woman was not around.
When John got home, she was gone.
He sat at the table with his shotgun:
overwhelmed with the most unholy righteousness,
he knew justice was a wedding, and it only happens once,
he sat a the table in darkness,
at midnight he thought that he heard something,
and he fired with all the fury of the kingdom coming.
It was morning before they knew what he'd done.
He turned himself in at dawn.
No one ever knew how the act was strangely just.
He said, "I mourn no man's loss.
I was only born just once."
I was only born just once."
But John was convicted of murder.
The man with the verdict was not long.
John climbed the stairs the next morning.
The gallows groaned under the weight of it,
They want no more of this justice.
The woman watched at a distance,
feeling strangely detached from the life that she created.
The door was opened to the laws of nature,
and the rope held the weight of the kingdom coming.
