In the beginning was the Word, and the small naked earth heard it
Hollers and graves were carved out, men and mounds raised up from it
Before long, strangers crossed oceans, and double-crossed every damn body
And before long, the mounds were laid bare, and strip malls were put on top

And the strangers brought others in the bows of their freighter ships
And this fearful land was built under that whining infant nation's whips
Before long, they tried to tell these old boys down here just how to do things
We dug in to our sin till we were drinking muddy water and eating shoestrings

Let us now praise it—
What's good and gone
The screen door swinging
The porch light on
Let us now praise it—
What's pure and past
Folks being folks
First being last

And we, now, the sons of the hardened hearts who signed it all away
And all the hardened heads who filled all those unmarked graves
Will sip cold tea whose leaves were picked betwixt firing squads in Sudan
Sweetened with sugar chopped by bleeding Brazilian hands, and say
"Ain't life grand!”

Let us now praise it—
What's good and gone
The screen door swinging
The porch light on
Let us now praise it—
What's pure and past
Folks being folks
First being last
So, gather around all ye wicked ones who wouldn't touch the stuff
You're selling
Come all y’all shallow-chested cowards who wheeze with pleas for proof
Granddaddy taught unto me the difference between telling a story and storytelling:
One is bearing false witness; the other is baring more truth than the truth