My Hymnal

A free verse poem about a hymnal...

This was inspired by a poem written by a friend.  I wrote this in just a few minutes...I'd like some opinions on it...



I whispered my favorite hymnal into the darkness
For any dream character to critique. 
Nero told me it wasn't worth
The price of my prayer book. 
He scratched it into a dirty brick wall
(So unseemly in these suburban streets)
And young people leaned against it
Taking no notice as the smoke from their cigarettes
Chased away the flies. 
I remembered the first time I heard a sweet girl's voice
Stretch its somber melody. 
She turned out to be a whore in church,
With the voice of an angel and the face of a fly. 
Degraded, my hymnal vulgarized, I scratched it out
With the penny from my penny loafers
And carved it again into a freckled tree.
Its bark was charred as lightening struck it
Thirty-nine times that evening. 
Even God didn't like my hymnal. 
It still meant a lot to me.