[New-Poetry] Poem for Darwin's 200th (& Liincoln's too)

[Anny Ballardini]

I don't know if I believed more in Jesus, the Angel or Santa Claus, maybe in
Jesus the least.

On Thu, Feb 12, 2009 at 8:45 PM, <jforjames at aol.com> wrote:

> At The Smithville Methodist Church
> by Stephen Dunn
>
>
> It was supposed to be Arts & Crafts for a week,
> but when she came home
> with the "Jesus Saves" button, we knew what art
> was up, what ancient craft.
>
> She liked her little friends. She liked the songs
> they sang when they weren't
> twisting and folding paper into dolls.
> What could be so bad?
>
> Jesus had been a good man, and putting faith
> in good men was what
> we had to do to stay this side of cynicism,
> that other sadness.
>
> OK, we said, One week. But when she came home
> singing "Jesus loves me,
> the Bible tells me so," it was time to talk.
> Could we say Jesus
>
> doesn't love you? Could I tell her the Bible
> is a great book certain people use
> to make you feel bad? We sent her back
> without a word.
>
> It had been so long since we believed, so long
> since we needed Jesus
> as our nemesis and friend, that we thought he was
> sufficiently dead,
>
> that our children would think of him like Lincoln
> or Thomas Jefferson.
> Soon it became clear to us: you can't teach disbelief
> to a child,
>
> only wonderful stories, and we hadn't a story
> nearly as good.
> On parents' night there were the Arts & Crafts
> all spread out
>
> like appetizers. Then we took our seats
> in the church
> and the children sang a song about the Ark,
> and Hallelujah
>
> and one in which they had to jump up and down
> for Jesus.
> I can't remember ever feeling so uncertain
> about what's comic, what's serious.
>
> Evolution is magical but devoid of heroes.
> You can't say to your child
> "Evolution loves you." The story stinks
> of extinction and nothing
>
> exciting happens for centuries. I didn't have
> a wonderful story for my child
> and she was beaming. All the way home in the car
> she sang the songs,
>
> occasionally standing up for Jesus.
> There was nothing to do
> but drive, ride it out, sing along
> in silence.
>
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-- 
Anny Ballardini
http://annyballardini.blogspot.com/
http://www.fieralingue.it/modules.php?name=poetshome
http://www.moriapoetry.com/ebooks.html
I Tell You: One must still have chaos in one to give birth to a dancing
star!
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