A Nightmare with Johnny Cash

I was wandering lost in a Death Valley desert far from any road

When I came upon a black muscle car blazing in the night

I walked toward the fiery wreck

He was sitting on the ground

Leaning on the many rolled crash

Wild energy emanating from this creature of unending darkness

Pandemonium in a black suit

Electric chaos caged in flesh

The twisted steel frame was wrapped in a fireball

Rich stinging kerosene smell

His guitar was charred carbon black

Scratched and splintered all to hell by his savage frantic picking

The broken neck dripped blood from his lacerated fingertips

Shattered bottles and spilled pills

Blood soaked sweat

He looked at me with tears

“I have learned the secret song of God.”

Then with a voice of gentle power, like many troubled thunders, he sang the song of Revelation

The one that cannot be learned except by the redeemed

“Johnny Cash you’re like a thorn tree in a whirlwind.”

He set down the guitar

“The whirlwind…is in the thorn tree”

And when he had made an end

He laid down on the restless sand

And died

I remember it so well

The living vision

The cutting wind

The pain in his voice

The angry fire and blood

The thick darkness where God was

I remember every detail

except one