Luyện nghe bài hát The Priest They Called Him

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

hurried by, gray shadows on a distant wall
It was late and no money to score
He into a side street and the lake wind hit him like a knife
Cab stop ahead under a streetlight

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

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

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

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

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

"Now, what do you want? I you!"
The Priest laid bills on the table
The doctor put the money in his pocket and to scream
"I've had trouble! People have around!
I may my license!"
The Priest sat there
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 across 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 bothered by like you"
"Is that all you have for me? One quarter G?
Couldn't you me a nickel?"
"Get out, get out, I'll call the I tell you"
"All right, doctor, I'm going"

Of it was cold and far walk to rooming house
A street, room on the top floor
"These stairs," coughed the
pulling himself up along the bannister
He went the bathroom
Yellow wall panels, toilet
And got his works under the washbasin
in brown paper, back to his room
Get every drop in the

He rolled up his
Then he heard a groan from door
18, the Mexican kid lived there
The Priest had 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 bad news in his life
He heard the groan again, a groan he feel
No mistaking groan and what it meant
"Maybe he had an or something.
In any case, I can't my priestly medications
With that sound through the wall"
walls you understand

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

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

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

The old Priest stood there, the boy groan
He inclined his head as if in prayer, went 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 went back to his and sat down on the bed
Then it hit him like heavy silent
All the gray junk
He sat there, received the fix
And since he was himself a
was no need to call one