By Misti Velvet Rainwater
Date: 7 May 1998

To Each Their Own Church

Answers sought after the sun has slipped away
Searches for the Key
  in musty dives with stained red carpet
Strangers fumbling for Some Sacred
  to adorn their Temples with
little people made Great
  thanks to the candles
and their shadows
 their benefactor The Moon
glows magic down
  and wrinkles are made smooth
hard eyes are softened
bodies turn to liquid
 in a glance
and The Dance begins...

You Are So Beautiful, So Different
Something About You Makes
  Me Smile

these lines
where do they come from?
this man kissing my hand
why is he even here
  and who am i
    to reject
  his humble Worship?
oh, please
  no more
of this
 I'm breaking Away
 I'm out the door
 I'm gone

Players enter & exit
  some glide
  some stumble
all of them have one thing
   in common
they've come
  to the same
   Place
this Bar
this Church
where Screwdrivers and week-old popcorn
   serve as Communion
and sermons boom out
 of the jukebox
 in the corner
Otis Redding preaches the Gospel
  for a quarter
"Squeeze her! Don't tease her! Never leave her!"

  the Answer is found, they Believe,
 in bombarding their bodies
    with too much
Hedonism is the Name of the Game
 if excess truly does lead
to the Palace of Wisdom
  they are
without a doubt
 Sages of the Ages

   new beds in which
   to exorcise their demons
   the ones that brought them
        Here

Nice to Meet You
Wanna Get Out of Here?
   Let's Go!

and so
 the cycle continues
   answers are sought
in the hot, electric Night
 and the moon glows
  in enigmatic splendor
up there in heaven.