Line Gauthier Contest
We swarmed the fields like a plague of locusts.
Cars bent the blades of grass, their glass eyes shining.
Ladies came in sunday best.
Men came dressed with ties and jackets.
There was no room for blankets.
We sat on the good earth from which God had made us.
We came to hear the preacher promise,
promise we were damned,
promise we were saved,
while we fanned our faces in the eye of the all seeing sun
and we screamed
“HALLELUJAH!”
Painted women put their makeup money in the basket.
Young men silently resolved to abuse themselves less.
I don’t remember anything the preacher actually said.
I only remember your face falling, or were you looking at the program?
I remember the way your tie traveled limply to your lap,
how you were afraid to hold my naked fingers.
It was then I knew you’d gone to paradise
and I was alone in the field.
March 16, 2020
Back When contest
Sponsored by Line Gauthier
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