Johnny Alleluia

Johnny Alleluia
In a seven-year cell
Watched the walking morning
Didn’t feel well,
Stretched for a string
Of the leaping light,
Nailed it to his neck-bone
Tacked it tight.

Up went Johnny
In the blue, bold air,
You should have seen
The screws all stare.
Johnny ? they said.
More lives than a cat.
Never should have thought he’d done
A thing like that.

Johnny was a tinker
Tramped to the fair,
His kettles as bright
As his tinplate hair.
With his tongue of chicken
And his breast of ham
Johnny didn’t give
A tinker’s damn.

It was Good old Johnny,
And Johnny here’s the key,
And Johnny put your hand
Where it shouldn’t be.
O the girls all laughed
And the boys didn’t care
When Johnny came up
Their kitchen stair.

But what is this blade
And what is this stone,
And why don’t you take
A wife of your own?
Why do you wear
Your breeches so tight,
And what is this drum
Of dynamite?

I sharpen my knife
On the winding stone
To cut me an apple
From the branch of bone.
My pants so tight
Keep my legs apart,
And I blast with powder
The human heart.

Is this a bunch
Of skeleton keys,
And what is this wax
Under your chemise?
Why are your eyes
So clear, my son,
And you still under
Twenty-one?

Under my shirt
My keys and my wax
Unlock the body
And silence the cracks.
I hear in my heart
The gold blood gad
As it did in the days
When Adam was a lad.

It was Now then, Johnny,
And Johnny take care,
For boys like you
There’s nothing to spare.
In the lake of love
You’re sure to drown,
You can’t walk on water
In this town.

You must keep your fingers
To yourself
And your lollipop eye
From another man’s shelf.
And Johnny don’t take
Too longa pull
At all things bright
And beautiful.

They shanghai’d Johnny
In a squinting cell
With modern plumbing
And a view of hell.
They disinfected
His public parts
And sketched his soul
On little charts.

So he cast off shore
And swung to sea.
The Governor wept,
He said, said he
It was ever thus!
And shook his head.

I’m damned if it was,
Young Johnny said.