Judas Smiles Poem by Kris Whelan (1971)

Jesus Christ save me from this pain, come and cleanse me with torrential rain
Come forth and bring a thunderstorm, just like the day which I was born
And the lightning striking on the ground, when the Judas he was lost and found
In the poison stream below the hill where you and I once undressed
And I confessed a liturgy and professed about the this dreaded mess
And now I long to see you smile beneath our oak of love
Where we can lay in harmony underneath a sky of blue above
And there’s no place else on Earth that matters more than being by your side
I hold you close beside me and I feel you here inside
And as I lay me down I think about a friend long gone who left before his time
To pave a path for us it seems, with a riddle in the rhyme
I forget about that poison stream and the road that tells this joke
And all I long for is right here with you beneath this ancient oak
It’s just a turn of phrase for now, here in this moment of time
So I dream on and tear it up, throw it in the river of slime
It’s you who calls me, you who wakes me, you who feeds my heart
And my homeplace is here, with you, and never will we part
Even Judas smiles as the rain comes down to take away the pain
And the stream runs clear at last to feed the meadow and the grain