#93

subway preacher brought a crony to shout amen and hallelujah to his sermon like johnny carson brought ed mcmahon to laugh at his jokes but it has no effect on the subway crowd of commuters staring past each others heads at the walls at the ads at the headlines on other peoples papers half curious about whats playing on other peoples ipods but certain words power through the banality due to emphatic decibels like church and lord and jesus and awesome and then they step off the train and disappear into the noise of the station bound for another train to preach their words and i wonder if either of these fellows would have come up with these sermons and words of praise if no one had ever drilled into their heads from the time they could comprehend the irrefutability of gods word and the power of jesus or if instead of being born in crown heights they were born wealthy and comfortable in a mansion in beverly hills with celebrity fathers and the ability to make their whims reality or in that case would they be fat on a couch or on a date or in a private plane or on a chartered sailboat in greece or would they be right in the same place on a seven thirty train from brooklyn to manhattan stumbling over the words of their inspiration and doing their best to convince themselves as much as anybody else that what they are saying is true