There's a big mountain on top. Men race up to the top on their bicycles. At the end, some starve for more violence. Some starve for soft breasts, soft asses, tongues of women. Some fight wars with rifles and die quick. Some die in the sun. Some die in the winter.
DARK WAS THE NIGHT - COLD WAS THE GROUND
ReplyDeleteJohnson was not born blind, and, although it is not known how he lost his sight, Angeline Johnson told Samuel Charters that when Willie was seven his father beat his stepmother after catching her going out with another man. The stepmother then picked up a handful of lye and threw it, not at Willie's father, but into the face of young Willie.
Johnson remained poor until the end of his life, preaching and singing for donations in the streets of Beaumont, Texas. A city directory shows that in 1945, a Rev W J Johnson, undoubtedly Blind Willie, operated the House of Prayer at 1440 Forrest Street.
In 1945, his home burned to the ground. With nowhere else to go, Johnson lived in the burned ruins of his home, sleeping on a wet bed in the summer Texas heat. He lived like this until he contracted pneumonia. He went to the hospital but was refused treatment because he was blind and black. He returned to the ruins of his burned home, wrapped himself in newspapers, and died.