Soulless
September 10. 1987

I was evicted from my soul yesterday
I left it on a porch step in a tiny Mississippi shanty town
Left frozen on the banks of a river flowing through
where several hundred women do their laundry
and babies cries echo in the air

My soul is getting baptized and stronger it will get
Never inside a body was a soul so spotless
It got into the tender hands of a woman with perfumes and oils
And now thawed out and scoured, I'm am ready for someone else to steal
While I walk through empty streets
A soulless, mercy seeking man

Sleeping in cheap garages next to winos
and waking up with morning papers in my face
Bathing in the public town square fountain in disgrace
It's the best I can do without my innermost control
There is so little a man can do when his heart is torn
Alarms go off as tributaries carry blood to empty voids
And a body holds no reasons to remain with any joy
Moping in a southern alley, blind to hope, only malice
held in hand to give to the man who walks with body full

I was evicted from my soul yesterday
I walk alone and empty
Thinking of a woman doing laundry by the river's edge
Hanging her soul to dry next to curtains on a line
My heart stored in a box at night waiting for my soul's return
Where once again my empty body can be whole, complete and happy

But it will never happen
I walk alone and cold
Empty and sold
I'm not achieving, just walking aimless
in a darkened alley
In a hard city night made for searching