Johnny And The Devil Poem by Mary Champion

Johnny was a drifting dreamer
Never seemed to settle down.
Everybody gave up on him;
Just a joke around the town.
Sittin' in the sunshine thinking
Never saw the passers by,
Never saw their scornful faces,
Never heard their mocking cry:

Ain't you got no job to go to?
Ain't you got no work to do?
Ain't there something you must see to?
Ain't there no one needing you.
Why are you so awful idle?
Ain't there nothin' you can do?
Ain't you read the Holy Bible?
The devil's making work for you.

Johnny dreamed about tomorrow
Johnny couldn't face today.
All the sufferin' and sorrow
Made him want to hide away.
So Johnny set his thoughts to thinking
How to give it all a miss
And he took it without blinking
When the neighbours asked him this:

Ain't you got no job to go to?
Ain't you got no work to do?
Ain't there something you must see to?
Ain't there no one needing you.
Why are you so awful idle?
Ain't there nothin' you can do?
Ain't you read the Holy Bible?
The Devil's making work for you.

The Devil came with temptin' offers
Sayin, 'this'll kill the pain.'
But Johnny never heard him either,
So Satan never called again.
Johnny set his soul to music
And sung it in a lazy drawl.
Sold a billion discs and downloads
And here's the biggest hit of all.

Ain't you got no job to go to?
Ain't you got no work to do?
Ain't there something you must see to?
Ain't there no one needing you.
Why are you so awful idle?
Ain't there nothin' you can do?
Ain't you read the Holy Bible?
The devil's making work for you.

Johnny took to drugs and drinkin'.
Johnny couldn't handle fame.
Now he had no time for thinkin'
No more words or music came.
Satan sat in Hell observin'
Chuckled to himself with glee;
'Now you know whose ends you're servin'.
That's another round to me! '