Luyện nghe bài hát The Priest They Called Him

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

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

Boy got out with a
kid in prep school clothes
Familiar face, the Priest told
from the doorway.

"Reminds me of a long time ago"
The boy, there, with his
Unbuttoned, reaching into his pants pocket for the cab
The cab drove away and turned the
The boy went a building

"Hmm, yes, maybe," the suitcase was there in the
The boy in sight
Gone to get the keys, most likely, to move fast
He picked up the and started for the corner
it, glanced down at the case
It look like the case the boy had or any boy would have
The Priest put his finger on what was so old about the case
Old and dirty, poor quality leather and
Better see what's

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

The buyer suspiciously
"Kind of a funny smell it"
"It's Mexican leather"
"Well, some joker cure it"
The buyer looked at the case with disfavor
"Not even right sure he killed it, it is
Three is the I can do and it hurts
But since this is and you're the Priest"
He slipped three under the table into the Priest's dirty hand
The Priest faded the street shadows, seedy and furtive
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, that a fruit for ya, blow your stack about three lousy cents
The was not pleased to see him

"Now, do you want? I told you!"
The Priest three 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 of junk, on the doctor's face
"I can't you a prescription"
The doctor jerked open a
And an ampule across the table
"That's all I have in the office!" The stood up
"Take it and get out!" he screamed,
The Priest's did not change

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

Of it was cold and far walk to rooming house
A shabby street, room on the top
"These stairs," the Priest
There pulling up along the bannister
He went into the
Yellow wall panels, dripping
And got his from under the washbasin
Wrapped in brown paper, to his room
Get every drop in the

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

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

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

A bolt slid, the boy stood in his underwear shorts
black with 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 Priest could see the
Like knots of wood there in the legs
Dark shiny leg hairs
"A few years ago I damaged myself in a bicycle
It was that the cramps started"
And now he has the leg cramps
With junk interest

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

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