Because his father was a man of the cross, Who said his son was a slave to the flesh When the spectacle ended, The charges were dropped. Marvin was left with a hole in his chest. He could've brought down a mountain when he pounded on a table or made the world collapse for a lapse in behavior. The pastor never spared the rod but taught the wrath and fear of God to stop this, godless pa**ion from burning Barking from the throne while the castle falls... He had a hand to smash the balance, A voice like a vortex, A temper like a terror threat, A head like a hornet's nest Every day the levee breaks The flood gates, the bloody face The black eye, baptized in shame He brought home the battlefield Sealed off the exits Crawling up the walls Absorbing the aggression The source of his depression The hurricane raging, The awful tension sent his hands to the piano forged a heaven in his heart, but dragged him back to hell when the arguments would start Because his father was a man of the cross, Who said his son was a slave to the flesh When the argument ended, The music would stop. Marvin was left with a hole in his chest. He mapped the length of his son's back with a leather belt Sapped his strength with tongue lashings and heavy guilt Attacked his legs with such savage and deadly sk** The cracks left in the punched plaster were never filled Patched together from fragments a sense of himself Advocate for compa**ion and the sensual As parents sent the young packing to the depths of hell The tattoo of guns clapping; the end of the world A marriage bed unraveling & a wedding bell cracked. He fell into drug habits the empty shell The tragic end of love's pa**ion a temple that fell The collapse of such a fragile and sensitive will Relapsed to ugly patterns of k** or be k**ed. To combat the drunken shadow and wrestle the swell. Came back to the blood he battled Where the devil dwelled To smash the gla**; and shatter himself. After the sudden blast A heavy quiet fell He asked his father "Why?" The silence wouldn't tell. After the gun blast A heavy quiet fell He asked his father "Why?" Because his father was a man of the cross, Who said his son was a slave to the flesh When the argument ended, The music would stop. Marvin was left with a hole in his chest.