Luyện nghe bài hát The Priest They Called Him

"Fight tuberculosis, folks"
Christmas Eve, an old junkie Christmas seals
On Park Street
The "Priest" they him
"Fight tuberculosis, folks"

People hurried by, shadows on a distant wall
It was getting late and no money to
He turned into a side street and the lake wind hit him like a
Cab stop just ahead a streetlight

Boy got out a suitcase
Thin kid in school clothes
Familiar face, the told himself
Watching the doorway.

"Reminds me of something a long ago"
The boy, there, his overcoat
Unbuttoned, reaching into his pants for the cab fare
The cab drove and turned the corner
The boy inside a building

"Hmm, yes, maybe," the was there in the doorway
The boy nowhere in
Gone to get the keys, most likely, have to move
He picked up the suitcase and started for the
Made it, glanced down at the
It didn't look like the case the boy had or any boy would
The Priest put his finger on what was so old about the case
Old and dirty, poor quality and heavy
Better see inside

He into Lincoln Park
Found an empty place and the case
Two human legs that belonged to a young man
With dark skin, shiny black leg
Glittered in the dim
The legs had been into the case
And he had to use his knee on the back of the case to shove out
"Legs, yet," he said and quickly away with the case.
Might bring a few dollars to

The buyer sniffed
"Kind of a funny about it"
"It's Mexican leather"
"Well, some joker cure it"
The buyer at the case with cold disfavor
"Not right sure he killed it, whatever it is
Three is the best I can do and it
But this is Christmas and you're the Priest"
He slipped three bills under the into the Priest's dirty hand
The Priest faded into the street shadows, and furtive
Three cents didn't buy a bag, nothing less than a
Say, remember that old Addie told me not to come back
Unless I paid him the three I owe him
Yeah, isn't that a fruit for ya, blow your stack three lousy cents
The was not pleased to see him

"Now, what do you I told you!"
The Priest laid bills on the table
The doctor put the money in his and started to scream
"I've had trouble! People have around!
I may my license!"
The just sat there
Eyes, old and heavy years of junk, on the doctor's face
"I write you a prescription"
The doctor open a drawer
And an ampule across the table
"That's all I have in the office!" The doctor up
"Take it and get out!" he screamed,
The expression did not change

The doctor added in tones
"After all, I'm a man
And I shouldn't be by people like you"
"Is that all you for me? One lousy quarter G?
you lend me a nickel?"
"Get out, get out, I'll call the police I you"
"All right, doctor, I'm going"

Of course it was cold and far to rooming house
A street, room on the top floor
"These stairs," the Priest
There pulling up along the bannister
He into the bathroom
Yellow panels, toilet dripping
And got his works from the washbasin
Wrapped in brown paper, back to his
Get every in the dropper

He up his sleeve
Then he heard a groan from next
Room 18, the Mexican kid lived
The Priest had passed him on the
And saw the kid was
But he never spoke because he didn't want any juvenile
Bad news in any

The Priest had had enough bad news in his
He heard the again, a groan he could feel
No mistaking groan and what it meant
"Maybe he had an or something.
In any case, I can't my priestly medications
that sound coming through the wall"
Thin you understand

The Priest put his dropper
hall and knocked on the door of Room 18
"Quien es?"
"It's the Priest, kid, I live door"
He could someone hobbling across the floor

A bolt slid, the boy there in his underwear shorts
Eyes black pain, he started to fall
The helped him over to the bed
"What's wrong, son?"
"It's my legs, seor,
And now I am medicine"

The could see the cramps
Like of wood there in the young legs
Dark shiny leg hairs
"A few ago I damaged myself in a bicycle race
It was that the cramps started"
And now he has the leg cramps
With compound interest

The old Priest there, feeling the boy groan
He his head as if in prayer, went back and got his dropper
"It's a quarter G, kid"
"I do not much, seor"

The boy was sleeping when the Priest Room 18
He back to his room and sat down on the bed
Then it hit him heavy silent snow
All the gray yesterdays
He sat there, received the fix
And since he was a priest
was no need to call one