“Too late my brothers”

“If living were a thing that money could buy
Then the rich would live and the poor would die
All my trials, Lord, soon be over
Hush little baby, don’t you cry”

If death were a thing that money could buy
then only the rich would live forever

If religion were a thing only money could buy
then the poor would have nowhere to honor and bury their dead

As I stood at the foot of Hollis’s bed, all the trouble I saw coming my way, I realized was not coming Hollis ‘way, too! My dear friend was out of loop. All his trials and tribulations were over. He was at peace. He was down for a long snooze. Whatever bullshit that was heading OUR way, no longer had anything to do with Mr. H. This was our moment of bliss. Then I heard the siren.

When I heard the insidious words of the evil landlord, I went back to our moment, the most ancient moment known to man, the beholding of dead by the living. For a long time men were not around when babies were born, so this is it, the accepted view of our mortality.

I had already looked at the idea if I had only come here sooner. Then, Hollis would be alive. This is when I had my first conversation with Hollis – from the land of the dead! Do you want to guess what H said?

I hate the Beltline highway. It is like a snake that swallows me and spits me out -god knows where. I was lost three miles after getting on it. I got off at Roosevelt and headed for some distant hills. I soon saw some gravestones on my left.

“No way!” I said to myself. Then there came the sign ‘West Lawn Memorial’. I had come in the back way, on tractor time.

The thing that no one looked forward to, was having no family be there to fill in the Last Paper Work and then- it’s over! I showed the funeral director, and two women from HUD-Vash, my post on Adopt-A-Vet post. A consensus was taken, and when it came time filling in the box “Relationship” the director wrote “Adopted-Father”.

And that is that!

The cruel words the sick landlord dare say to me, may have a new meaning?

“You’re talking about my son, here.”

I took the two photos of the tree and Hollis on our way to the Liberty in the Park conert on the 4th.of July. I loved how the path headed for the tree, then went around it. I took the first pic with no Hollis, then had him walk down the path.

“Fear not them which kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul.” (Matthew 10:28)

Jon Presco

“All My Trials” was a folk song during the social protest movements of the 1950s and 1960s. It is based on a Bahamian lullaby that tells the story of a mother on her death bed, comforting her children, “Hush little baby, don’t you cry./You know your mama’s bound to die,” because, as she explains, “All my trials, Lord,/Soon be over.” The message — that no matter how bleak the situation seemed, the struggle would “soon be over” — propelled the song to the status of an anthem, recorded by many of the leading artists of the era.
The song is usually classified as a Spiritual because of its biblical and religious imagery. There are references to the “Lord,” “a little book” with a message of “liberty,” “brothers,” “religion,” “paradise,” “pilgrims” and the “tree of life” awaiting her after her hardships, referred to as “trials.” There is an allegory of the river Jordan, the crossing thereof representing the Christian experience of death as something which “…chills the body but not the soul.” The river/death allegory was popularised by John Bunyan in his classic, The Pilgrim’s Progress and the wording echoes the teaching of Jesus, to “…fear not them which kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul.” (Matthew 10:28)
[edit] Versions
The song was recorded numerous times by folk artists, including Bob Gibson, Pete Seeger, Dave Van Ronk, Anita Carter, Joan Baez, The Seekers, Harry Belafonte, Peter, Paul and Mary and Ray Stevens.
Nick Drake and Gabrielle Drake sang it as a duet.
Another version of the song, “All My Sorrows,” was made popular by the Kingston Trio, who recorded it in 1959.
A version of “All My Sorrows” was also recorded by The Shadows in 1961.
A fragment of the song is used in the Mickey Newbury anthem “An American Trilogy”, also recorded by Elvis Presley.
More recently it was sung by Cerys Matthews on her album Cockahoop.
A live version of the song was released as a single by Paul McCartney in 1990 and made into top 40 in UK, reaching as high as #35.[1]
The Kelly Family included the song on their 1981 album Wonderful World.
Fleetwood Mac guitarist Lindsey Buckingham did his own version of “All My Sorrows” titled “All My Sorrow” on his 1992 solo album Out of the Cradle.

You know your mama was born to die
All my trials, Lord, soon be over

The river of Jordan is muddy and cold
Well it chills the body but not the soul
All my trials, Lord, soon be over

I’ve got a little book with pages three
And every page spells liberty
All my trials, Lord, soon be over

Too late, my brothers
Too late, but never mind
All my trials, Lord, soon be over

If living were a thing that money could buy
Then the rich would live and the poor would die
All my trials, Lord, soon be over

There grows a tree in Paradise
And the pilgrims call it the Tree of Life
All my trials, Lord, soon be over

Too late, my brothers
Too late, but never mind
All my trials, Lord, soon be over
All my trials, Lord, soon be over