Robert Southwick Richmond

Soul winner, Christian businessman

SOUL WINNER, CHRISTIAN BUSINESSMAN, April 20th, 11 A.M.

 

You can have my soul

spotty squidflesh somewhere inside me,

you can have my mind

with all the neat numbers in it,

you can have my body

fast legs sludging arteries,

you can have my heart

that’s so good in bed,

you can have any part.

You can have my old trousers

if they haven’t emptied the dumpster yet.

 

But what would you do

with my soul if you had it?

Cut out the guts and the pen,

stomp on it, tenderize it, fricassee:

you’d throw my body against the Saracen,

napalm salvation on a million gooks.

Toss out my body, bury my heart.

You’d have me reborn

on the clutching rotary, the roped wheel:

I won’t be born again.