Safe Passage for Willie: Under an I-35 Bridge with St. Benezet

By Greg Moses

Friday evening around sundown I found Saint Benezet passing through Austin. He was standing on Lady Bird Lake checking out the I-35 bridge, and I asked him why.

“The Maker’s favorite son Willie is driving this way, and I want to make sure he’s okay,” said the famed Saint of Le Pont d’Avignon as the palms of his hands cupped a beam. Then he asked me why I was looking so puzzled.

“Well,” I said. “Isn’t Willie coming to town on a marijuana mission? Won’t he be raising money for a bunch of folks who are pro pot?”

“Do you think that bothers us?” asked the young saint as convoys of freight trucks flew overhead. “Didn’t The Maker make grapes, too?”

I tried to remember when any god was last reported to be denouncing wine.

“On the other hand,” said the young saint, “when did The Maker ever ask you folks to build prisons.”

As he moved to the next beam, I recalled that he was always a plain speaking saint, telling powerful people what they needed to do next. If there was any divine directive to build more prisons for marijuana offenders, he would say so.

“And what are you doing here?” he asked.

“I came to talk to the river,” I replied.

“You mean the lake?”

“Okay, the dammed river,” I grinned.

And he grinned, too.

As Saint Benezet glided West towards the bridges at Congress Avenue and Boulevard Mirabeau Bonaparte Lamar, the water rippled with a cool breeze.

In the wind, I heard him singing, “Les musiciens font comme ça. . . .”

Note: Willie Nelson headlines the Austin Freedom Fest at The Backyard near Austin August 10, with proceeds going to the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws (NORML), The Marijuana Policy Project (MPP), and the Women’s Alliance for Medical Marijuana (WAMM).

adapted from mamalisa.com by the Texas Civil Rights Review–gm

On Bridges ‘cross the Rio Grande

Children’s Song
(English)

Chorus
On bridges ‘cross the Rio Grande
They are dancing, they are dancing,
On bridges ‘cross the Rio Grande
They are dancing all around

The handsome men – they go this way
And then again go that way

Chorus

Lovely women – they go this way
And then again go that way

Chorus

The shoemakers – they go this way
And then again go that way

Chorus

The laundresses – they go this way
And then again go that way

Chorus

The musicians – they go this way
And then again go that way

Chorus

The soldiers – they too go this way
And then again go that way

Chorus

The landscapers – they go this way
And then again go that wa

Chorus

The grape growers – they go this way
And then again go that way

Chorus

The dressmakers – they go this way
And then again go that way

Chorus

The capenters – they go this way
And then again go that way

Chorus

The breakfast cooks – they go this way
And then again go that way

Chorus

The mechanics – they go this way
And then again go that way

Chorus

The ____________ – they go this way
And then again go that way

Chorus

Game Instructions

The children dance on a circle on the chorus. On the first verse, the dance stops and the children bow and pretend to raise their hats. On the second verse, the children curtsey on one side, then on the other.