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 ahead under a streetlight

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

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

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

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

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

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

The added in quieter 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
pulling himself up along the bannister
He went the bathroom
Yellow panels, toilet dripping
And got his works from under the
Wrapped in paper, back to his room
Get every in the dropper

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

The Priest had had enough bad news in his
He heard the groan again, a groan he feel
No mistaking that groan and it meant
"Maybe he had an or something.
In any case, I enjoy my priestly medications
With that sound through the wall"
Thin walls you

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

A bolt slid, the boy stood in his underwear shorts
Eyes black with pain, he 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 knots of wood in the young legs
Dark shiny leg hairs
"A few years ago I damaged myself in a race
It was then that the started"
And now he has the leg cramps
compound junk interest

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

The boy was sleeping when the left Room 18
He went back to his room and sat on the bed
it hit him like heavy silent snow
All the gray yesterdays
He sat there, the immaculate fix
And since he was a priest
There was no need to one