Saul Keller

Saul Keller was the first to drown in the flood of '93
he lived with his dogs down in Grafton
cut stone in Alton quarry
he grew up in Jessamine Kentucky, played Sweet saro when he was ten
but he bet his mama's harmony
in a dice throw on a pint of bourbon
his father feared God and he feared the mines,
drove the tipples in coal dust clouds
said, "The Master's hand is hard sometimes
but who else is gonna wipe your brow?"
get to know Jesus the women cried, by the river on baptism day
Saul looked the Lord right in the eye
put on his shoes and turned away
sun and moon, circles in the sky
December and June, river rising high
he married a girl from Nachez Trace, twenty years ago, maybe
stole a horse to buy her lace
and a knife of rosewood and steel
they followed the big river backwards for Lily's cousin's in Saginaw
Saul met some men in a trainyard
lost more than he knew on a hand of lowball
by the river they built life and home from a boathouse, shed and bricks
swore he'd never work coal or stone
but in Alton, the stone's all there is
firs spring Lily died in childbirth, on the cool kitchen floor
doctor come to tell Saul
he was pitchin' a knife at the shed door
sun and moon, circles in the sky
December and June, river rising high
now he picks up hitchers on the river line just for someone to talk to
shares his whiskey and he shares his time
trying to put an end to his dues
the Mississippi rises with the spring thaw, round that house
where his child wasn't born
he'd watch her come and go with fall, mark the water lines every morn
when the levee broke he heard her, like the wind
through the mines in his dreams
saw it coming like a tide curl of an ocean he'd never seen