Thus I Wrote

I hear you shot a man in Reno
Just to watch him die
I just want to know Johnny
Why did you do it, why?

Was it your broken heart?
Was it the drugs and alcohol?
Was it writer’s block?
That caused so big a fall

I wear my sackcloth
And lash myself to atone
I am holier than thou
Did you feel my first stone

There’s an empty space
In the middle of my soul
That I fill by finding
A superior punitive role

Johnny, you make me forget
All the sins in my life
By helping me stand tall
On the pillar of your strife