Union Gospel Mission

Used men clutching
meal tickets
in wooden
folding chairs

dusty ceiling fan
turning so slowly
it hardly moves
its own shadow

smell of sweat
hum of flies
piano promising
whosoever will

stubbled young wino
listening --
crude tattoo
born to raise hell

banners around a
grinning skull
its red eyes set
in deep black hollows

leprous white walls
paint-skin scabbing
away under the nicotine-
yellow lights

seminary student
starched slacks and golf shirt
practicing at the front of the room
a tribal thumping

on the tired-familiar drum.