Daddy and other preachers decided to pray
All night
In the woods beside Whitehorse Road
Near Tabernacle Baptist
Our Church
In Greenville
I asked if I could go
Of course I could
I was the only boy
Ten years old
We prayed til daybreak
I buried my head in leaves
Threw them in the air
Peeked on occasion
To see what others were doing
Yelled words
Sometimes nonsense phrases
They ran
They wept
Mostly they yelled to the stars
Some climbed up and sat on tree branches
Everyone tried to pray the loudest
The subjects included:
How to deal with uppity black people
The Beatles being bigger than Jesus
Long haired men
Braless women
The devil's weed
Astronauts playing God
America a godless land
When the sun rose and we left
They spoke of how close to God they felt
Dad put his hand on my shoulder
We walked to the car
What in the world would your father think today?
ReplyDeleteSince this is an anonymous comment, I have trouble discerning the intent of the question. It is a fascinating question, but the "in the world" part of the question suggests you the questioner might be imaging he would disapprove of me writing in the way I did. That could be. I will never know for sure. If you are someone who would know as well as me what he would think, I don't need to answer. If you are someone who is genuinely in doubt, my best guess is he would find it a cute little poem and be sort of proud that I would remember it. He would probably fill me in on details I got wrong and no doubt, we would have a laugh before we stopped talking about it. Good question.
ReplyDeleteYou recapture the ten year old boy and the concerns of the time very well Prof.
ReplyDeleteThanks, Gerard.
ReplyDelete