I
was sitting along
In
a god forsaken bar
Somewhere
on the lunatic fringes
Of
society
On
the bad part of town
Over
by railroad tracks
Heading
to hell
As
fast as I could drink it down
Enjoying
my lonely drink
Drinking
by my lonesome self
With
my partners
Jimmy
Beam and the Walker brother
And
his old Granddad
Just
drinking and hanging
With
the Jack Daniel's gang
A
crazed bum
With
a thousand year stare
Walks
up to me
He
begins
Muttering
to himself
Nutty
nonsense
Crazy
words
In
a lunatic's voice
He
had the look
Of
one possessed
By
his own demons
That
only he can see
Or
hear
Possessed
by a secret knowledge
Only
he knew
Despite
myself
I
was fascinated
By
this lunatic's tale
So
I stopped him
And
said
So
what's your game
Anyway
The
short little dude
Stopped
his insane prattle
Staring
at me
With
that thousand year old stare
Just
another washed up
Lunatic
Too
many drugs
Too
many bad nights
On
the wrong side of life
He
looked at me
And
proclaimed his story
He
reared up
And
filled up the room
And
lifted the bar
On
his finger
And
stared down at me
From
the sky
And
said
Since
you asked
I
am God
The
alpha and Omega
The
real deal
The
original dude of dudes
The
sultan of Swing
God
of hosts
And
father of that Jesus dude
But
no one knows me
Any
more
No
one cares
They
think I am irrelevant
They
think I am dead
They
think I am a fairy tale
From
some olden, ancient time
Some
say I am dead
Others
think I should be dead
That
my work is done
I
looked at him
Carefully
now
And
what did I see
An
old man
With
that lunatic look
But
there was something else
He
was crazy
Sure
yes
But
perhaps he was the real deal
I
mean why not
Why
would not God be
A
lunatic wandering around loose
Talking
to low lifes like me
In
a bar
On
the way to hell
So
I looked at him
And
invited him to share
His
tale of woe
God
tells me
Well,
it's like this
Many
a year ago
People
believed in me
But
one day
They
quit believing in me
And
they went on without me
As
they left me
My
powers got weaker and weaker
And
so eventually I became
What
you see today
A
broken down drunk
Hanging
out
Looking
for a hand out
Looking
for some company
Or
at least a free dinner
And
he laughed and laughed
And
I looked at him
And
saw the beginnings of the end
And
the ends of the beginnings
I
saw a million planets
Flash
by
A
billion people
A
trillion sentient beings
Thinking
all at once
Thoughts
filled my head
Lights
flashed
And
I knew
He
was telling the truth
But
it did not matter
In
this day and age
Of
materialism
God
has no role
God
is truly dead
And
so I bought him a drink
And
walked out of the bar
Profoundly
sadden by what I had seen
God
was dead
And
we had all conspired
To
kill him
Long
live God
Despite the obvious lift from George Thorogood's "I Drink Alone," this is a great tale, But to pull it off successfully it needs someone with the charisma of a Tom Waites or a Charles Bukowsky -- or a Jake Lee -- to tell it right.
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