Please critique.


Wicked Good Woman Child

Wicked Good Woman Child with her Bold Shy Night Day,
Comes Goes my Sleep Wake as I Come Go Work Play.
Comes Goes my Sleep Wake and Hurt Soothes my heart.
Wicked Good Woman Child plays her Pleasure Pain part.

Wicked Good Daughter Wife Dark Lights my Heart Mind,
She Scratch Kisses Me You and Free Binds Hurt Kind.
She Scratch Kisses Me You till I Weep Laugh High Low.
Wicked Good Daughter Wife with her Bold Shy Stop Go.

Wicked Good Woman Child Freeze Burns Body Brain,
Hot Cold Kiss Slap Stop Goes her Woman Child’s Pain.
Hot Cold Kiss Slap Stop Goes each Night and each Day,
Wicked Good Woman Child Love Hates to Hurt Play.

Wicked Good Whisper Shout Kiss Stomps my Heart Face,
She Love Hates my Pleasure Pain, Gives Takes Hunger Taste.
She Love Hates My Pleasure Pain, Mock Praises Me You.
Wicked Good Whisper Shout makes me Wise Man Fool.

Wholly Good, Wholly Good,
I wish she were Wholly Good.
I might love her as I should,
If only she were Wholly Good.
Wholly Good, Wholly Good,
I wish I were Wholly Good.
I might leave her as I should,
If only I were Wholly Good.

Wicked Good Woman Child with her Bold Shy Night Day,
Comes Goes my Sleep Wake as I Come Go Work Play.
Comes Goes my Sleep Wake and Hurt Soothes my heart.
Wicked Good Woman Child plays her Pleasure Pain part.

Wicked Good Daughter Wife Dark Lights my Heart Mind,
She Scratch Kisses Me You and Free Binds Hurt Kind.
She Scratch Kisses Me You till I Weep Laugh High Low.
Wicked Good Daughter Wife with her Bold Shy Stop Go.

Wicked Good Woman Child, I Love Hate her so.
Wicked Good Woman Child, I Love Hate her so.

c2006 Skip Johnson
All rights reserved

Author's Note:

I've been observing an unusual relationship recently. I hope I'm misreading it. I fear I am not. It stands to damage a lot of people if it should move in a wrong direction--and I have no way of knowing whether it already has. This lyric is descriptive, not prescriptive. It is observed, not participated in. What my own responsibility in the matter is, and how I am to procede is unclear. Thank God I can lean on His wisdom so far greater than my own!

This piece is based on a phrase I've heard numerous times since arriving in New England--"Wicked Good". (I believe that's from a local stage show based on a retelling of the story of the Journey to Oz from the viewpoint of one of the witches.) I find the phrase itself unsettling. The clash of moral opposites welded together so closely in a single slang term seems a sort of verbal "computer virus" designed to break down moral distinctions that should be maintained in people's hearts, minds, words and lives. It seems an attack on the whole notion of a distinction between good and evil--a distinction that doesn't appear in a fairly wide range of possible world views outside of the Theism of the Bible. (The context for a phrase makes a great deal of difference, of course.)

Is it possible to weave words in such a way that they mar and muddle minds and morals in the same way a computer virus destroys a computer it infects? Can a mere phrase prove a snare to speaker and listener simply through its repetition and uncritical acceptance?

I have the greatest respect for words because I know and feel their power. An Old Testament prophet once wrote, "Curses are those who call darkness light and evil good." The third of the Big Ten reminds us that simply speaking wrongly can be culpable sin. The New Testament says that we will be condemned or acquitted when we face God to give an account for our lives on the basis of our words.

Words are that place between thoughts and feelings within us and outward actions that involve others as observers or participants. The Bible says we are held accountable at the point of speech--even if the action itself is never followed through on. That's rather sobering--especially for someone like myself, who works and plays with words.




[This message has been edited by Skip Johnson (edited 08-10-2006).]