Black Cowboys

Lyrics

Rainey Williams' playground was the Mott Haven streets where he ran past
melted candles and flower wreaths, names and photos of young black faces,
whose death and blood consecrated these places. Rainey's mother said, "Rainey
stay at my side, for you are my blessing you are my pride. It's your love here
that keeps my soul alive. I want you to come home from school and stay
inside."  
  
Rainey'd do his work and put his books away. There was a channel showed a
western movie everyday. Lynette brought him home books on the black cowboys of
the Oklahoma range and the Seminole scouts who fought the tribes of the Great
Plains. Summer come and the days grew long. Rainey always had his mother's
smile to depend on. Along a street of stray bullets he made his way, to the
warmth of her arms at the end of each day.  
  
Come the fall the rain flooded these homes, here in Ezekiel's valley of dry
bones, it fell hard and dark to the ground. It fell without a sound. Lynette
took up with a man whose business was the boulevard, whose smile was fixed in
a face that was never off guard. In the pipes 'neath the kitchen sink his
secrets he kept. In the day, behind drawn curtains, in Lynette's bedroom he
slept.  
  
Then she got lost in the days. The smile Rainey depended on dusted away, the
arms that held him were no more his home. He lay at night his head pressed to
her chest listening to the ghost in her bones.  
  
In the kitchen Rainey slipped his hand between the pipes. From a brown bag
pulled five hundred dollar bills and stuck it in his coat side, stood in the
dark at his mother's bed, brushed her hair and kissed her eyes.  
  
In the twilight Rainey walked to the station along streets of stone. Through
Pennsylvania and Ohio his train drifted on. Through the small towns of Indiana
the big train crept, as he lay his head back on the seat and slept. He awoke
and the towns gave way to muddy fields of green, corn and cotton and an
endless nothin' in between. Over the rutted hills of Oklahoma the red sun
slipped and was gone. The moon rose and stripped the earth to its bone.