A Church in the City

I thought if I brought him to the church
He would get it

He would step inside the house of God
And realize that he was committing a sin
By not agreeing to kill his mother

The woman that is stopping us
From achieving true happiness

And the opposite of happiness is evil
And so his mother is evil

It's math

Every day I would walk by this church
On my way to work
For Mr. Morris
Whose wife left him today

Well, she didn't really leave him
She called and said she was leaving him
But knowing her, she'll keep the house
So I guess it was more like
She's telling him to leave

After years and years together

Such a shame

I had to write a memo to everybody in the office
Telling them not to talk about it
Because that would be insensitive

You wouldn't believe some of the gossips
I work with

Unbelievable, I'm telling you

As I was typing up the memo
Regarding my boss' shrapnel-infested marriage
I realize what the problem is nowadays

People have no fear
No fear anymore
None at all

That's why I love that downtown church

You walk by that church
And the first thing you feel
Is fear

None of this hokey-pokey happy time religion
I'm talking medieval jazz here
I'm talking sheer TERROR
That if you didn't marry the woman you love
Because your mother doesn't like her
God would strike you down
With boils and bleeding eyes

That's the kinda religion we need nowadays

And that church inspires fear

So I thought if I brought Bobby to the church
He would finally feel like what we have
Is important

That it's worth making something

Because right now
It's nothin'
It's nothin' at all

You know, my sister
She's got a good man
And you know what she does to him?
She screws around on him

And she gets to be married
And I don't
Tell me that's fair

It's not fair

I should take her to that church too

I should take her
I should take Bobby
And I should take Bobby's mother
And I should sit them all down
Right in the front row
Right in front of scary Jesus

And say--'There! Do you feel that? That pulse-quickening anxiety coursing through your veins? THAT'S GOD!'

. . . . .

You know, you live in a city
And you forget about people

You forget about the people
That live there
Right next to you
Walking right by
Every day

The secretary who answers your phone calls
The sister who listens to you brag about your men
The sickened girlfriend, tired of getting invitations in the mail
To another woman's wedding

You think, well, it's a big city
There's lots of people in it

Why commit, you know?

Why commit to a friendship, or a lover
Or a good woman
Or a religion
Or a restaurant
Or an apartment
Or even the city itself

Hell, move to another city
What difference does it make, right?

There's something better, isn't there?
Always something better...

Back when they had churches like that
People didn't have time
To wait around for better

They didn't pass up something good
Because they knew
There might not always be time
For something great

I'm not a great woman
I'll admit that

I'm a city girl, you know?

I'm tough and I bitch
And I fight for what I want
And I'm impatient
And I'm no great beauty, like my sister

But I can love a man
Like nobody's ever loved him

And I can believe in him
Like the people that used to go into those churches
Used to believe in something

Maybe I could even make his mother believe
That a man can be a husband and a son
At the same damn time

So I wish I'd brought him to the church
I wish I'd dragged him up the steps
And I wish the two of us
Had sat down together
And prayed

Because when I found out
He'd been with my sister...

. . . . .

I figured the only place
I could forgive him

Was inside that church