He’s known him about as long as anyone
but that don’t mean he really knows him,
y’know?
That man’s been faded and shaded
through so many tones and variations
over the years
that whatever Brother David remembers
from way back Hibbing way
could be just some faint recollection
of a glimmer of a hazy memory
and memories, like someone said,
are just a foggy ruin of time
so what does Brother David really know,
anyhow?

He knew him then
and knows him now.
Too few can say that still.
They spend Christmas
or Passover or whatever holidays
he will choose to celebrate
this year.
Who can say?

Brother David could
but he don’t
except to remind
what he said long ago
about the man,
that ever since he’d changed his name
and started spinning those tales:
"He set out to become what he is."

Amen to that, Brother David.
Profound. Pure.
Not at all obscure:
truth.