balance in the bible belt

Annabelle,
New York Jewish lady,
transplanted to central Kansas
sits in the flea market
amidst her leather & bead creations,

rolls her eyes,
says, “oy! i read the Satanic Bible
during the Christmas season,
just to maintain
some balance!”

 

Cheap Therapy Cleverly Disguised as Prose Poem

i bumble and stumble my way to enlightenment. i resent half-baked shit i
was taught. and a few things i wasn’t taught. that “Israel” means to
wrestle with God, and questioning and wrestling with him is practically
mandatory, since most of his best people did it. and how sometimes God
backed off. i resent the Standard Backwoods Baptist Answer to Childish
omnipotent deity should be logical and consistent, and should balance out
in heart and mind.
                                   i sort of resent not being taught the Third
Commandment in original Hebrew is Thou shalt not carry the Lord’s
name in vain, not take it in vain, as was translated into English by
medieval dumbasses. that muttering God damn it, or Jesus Jumped-Up
Christ! might not be quite the cosmic offense against God as luring a
gentle funny loving gay man into the country, ganging up on him two-t0
one, beating him with crowbar and bat, trashing his car, urinating on him,
leaving him for dead, saying we are doing God’s work: exterminating 
faggots. (i wonder just how many God damn Baptists it will take to 
figure that one out.)
                                     and call me crazy, but i resent not being taught in
Sunday school that King James i, whose name graces the second English
translation of the Holy Bible, was queer like me. and if God could trust his
eternal word to faggot, then maybe there’s a place for me in the plan after
all?
          i resent red-faced preachers screaming about hellfire and damnation
because of Adam and Eve’s original sin, raging and pounding on their
Bibles, scaring the holy shit out of the child i was. never noting Adam
and Eve allegedly lived more than 900 happy years together; were Mother 
and Father of all humanity; and represent the concept that we are all –
every religion, nationality, ability, size, shape, race, gender and sexual
orientation – brothers and sisters, one big family. No one can change that
not even Nazis, Ku Klux Klan or Christians of any caliber.
                                                                                                     i mostly
resent being threatened as a child: i wonder why i was told i was dangling
over a smelly pit of raging fire – that one tiny transgression would plunge
me into that fire. i’d be wailing, gnashing my teeth and consumed by
maggots for eternity – when i could have been taught the Bible in two
simple word: forgiveness and love.

 
from michael's
new book

cosmic children