The slide, glass and smooth
Slides on the strings
Rhythm of a rumbling freight
Southbound with a heavy load
The pain screams out of every note
Heartbreak, sorrow, disappointment
Years of shit vibrate out from the meeting of glass and string
Giving meaning to such sorrow
–
Down where the Mississippi flowed dark and turbid
Between banks of the suffering, oppressed, poor
Sound echoed off the willow and the driftwood
In fields and houses the guitar wailed
And in the midst of such pain
Even the angels on high turned an ear
Man, like his brother Jesus, was transfigured in glory
Redeemed through suffered deprivations immortalized in song
