Tucking Judy In
She had a tough time We didn’t know Decades I gladly drove the three hours To the church my mother was raised in My brother and I Went through the line The brothers And sisters Of Judy We listened to the remembrances From her brother Paul A devout and gifted evangelist Who led us in […]
I’m Sorry on Father’s Day
I am writing this Because Father’s Day Is coming And I want to tell you I’m sorry For a bunch of stuff I did Then when I get finished Apologizing For all that stuff I did, I am gonna forgive you For something You did. I’m sorry for crying like a baby Though I was […]
The Joy of Babies
Caleb Johnson planted the last of the pumpkin seeds in the last hill he had prepared. There were fifty of them, and he had spaced them about six feet apart to give them some room. If he had figured right, come late October he would have an abundance of giant orange pumpkins, and relying on […]
Granny’s Big Year
Rose Huffstetler came out of the bathroom, went up the one step into the kitchen and started making her way to her rocking chair in the living room. About at the bottom of her shoulder blades her back took a sharp turn toward the front; Rose was very stooped. Her gait was labored; she lurched […]
LAST CHANCE
Edna Rhyne gently rocked the cradle beside her in front of the low fire. She was thinking about her new baby boy, and how she and her husband, Caleb, had hoped for a boy, after having had two girls. She got up from the chair and leaned over to pick up little Pasour Rhyne, but […]
CELESTIAL EPIPHANY
The CREATOR is reviewing (kind of a mid-term thing) He sees the Catholics With all their ceremony And nods saying “nice effort” And the Baptists With their zeal and fervor And send forth An approving chuckle Then the Pentecostals The serpents And he kind of shakes his head And says “maybe trying a lil too […]
THE VILLAGERS
Before the developer The Gypsies would camp there in the summers There in the woods that would become The Village Now the restaurants and shops Even places that sell only tea Flourish But other travelers have come I have watched them for fifteen years I saw one of them only this morning On my Sunday […]
No Homecoming
I have been sitting here Since four forty-five And now it is six I have been sitting here Under the big pine tree Beside the driveway I guess it is time Time to give up For tonight But I will come back Tomorrow At the same time I know it has been six months And […]
Concentrated Salts
Read it in the paper That husband-wife pharmacy column Always fascinating stuff Man had psoriasis, found cure Went to Israel three years in a row Dead Sea was the answer Psoriasis free ever since “Expensive, but it healed me” he wrote Combining a lament and a victory Daddy had it too Got diagnosed by Dr. […]