Homing

The water's wonderful there
And the women aren't bad
Neither when you look at them
Twice, but the blame

Lies in that glass from the tap
For making me want to go back.
I went looking for where they get
It from but I got a ticket

For speeding; and when I said
I'm Mister Shine, a black ghost,
Cop said that's too bad.
Glow I was lost.

But my sermon is about the water,
How it's precious like family
When you wanting something familiar.
It made me happy-- 

It taste like baby's breath,
Like dew. I never knew sweeter water.
But I'm a spook's spook; I stole
This story from a dead man's mouth.

He was a preacher from Virginia
Who before he expired said:
Somewhere there's a well of sweet water.
Somewhere in Ohio or maybe Carolina.

From The Shine Poems by Calvin Forbes. Copyright © 2001 by Calvin Forbes. Reproduced with permission of Louisiana State University Press. All rights reserved.