Six square panes, so varied and solid,
In painted arrays of quiet and light,
Four windows per side, a glorious sight.
Of eight casting shadows on wood-grain and rite.
On Sunday, the benches hold twenty souls,
With standing room only in pious rows,
Embracing the flock as the morning wind blows.
Across the green of the country lane, resting
Beyond the pale borders of Protestant ground,
The Catholic services welcome the weary
At The Painted Church, the painted panes are found.
Yet both of the steeples reach up to the blue.
*In the 90’s, lava destroyed the Protestant Church that was later rebuilt in the main town. The Catholic Church, best known as The Painted Church, was lifted onto an 18-wheeler flatbed to a secluded spot, one mile from where the lava flow came to an end. Father Damien made it of historic significance.
I tried to run,
I tried to hide.
He chased me down,
He took my pride.
Make me humble,
Every step of the way.
I don’t deserve it,
But I get it anyway.
Just let it go,
It’s not up to me.
What’s it gonna take
For us to break bread together?
To love one another
As He has loved us?
Starting little fires,
Here and there.
Fruit of salvation
Delivered to the masses.
10/7/25
Guide my steps,
Guided and measured.
According to Your pace,
Your glory and grace.
No fear with You
I know you’re in control.
Where my feet may fail
I know you never will.
Incomplete is not of God.
Unfinished is not of God.
Spirit of lack is not of God.
Coming undone is of God.
He’ll undo the worst,
He’ll make it the best.
Pulled apart by the flesh,
God will give refresh.
Better than before,
Better than we can imagine.
Less is more and more is less.
Better than before.
God shows up on time.
God works in due time.
But water the earth
For this new birth.
10/8/25
Hold my hand
As I uphold your love.
Peace is jolly good,
We toil for food.
Blessed are you,
Lord our God.
King of the universe,
Who brings forth
Our daily bread.
Oval day broke and hunger looking for $5 meal
Walk into the discount store. Food fossils line the shelves, with beverages stacked in dusty years and bread petrified with mold, hard for two weeks. Jesus sings to shoppers from the boombox. Nero mocks Biden for losing to Caesar. They ban weed and *********** but hand kids assault weapons for school shootings. Broadcasts sold in installments to poor folks play on countryside AM like Roosevelt’s nightly chats. Jesus is a friend, but compassion ain’t rent. Social Security and EBT rolled cigarettes . Get a job, hit the streets, and hear jail anthems for the broken. Jesus’ blood drips, Buddha weeps, and they spit on my poppy’s grave. Rome is for Romans, commandments nailed for Judas, and the American dream turns to apostasy. The Samaritan’s gas tank runs dry. Billionaires make their riches from fraud, while Protestant TV preachers fleece the flock. The revolution flickers on the tube. Why is God love, Jack?
HAPPY BIRTHDAY
I don’t much care about the month I was born
As July does seem as good or bad as any other
It was Nature’s timing, plus a few weeks more
I guess a Julian calendar has much to answer for
Yet conception due to my father and mother
And the whole astrology thing, mainly a yawn
There are few celebrated famous dates in July
At least here in this part of a Protestant world
With no Saints’ days, just some sinners I suspect
And growing agnosticism starts to feel correct
But elsewhere, a pledge when a flag is unfurled
And the month is OK, when it’s sunny and dry
HENRY THE EIGHTH
Henry the eighth
Backed the Protestant faith.
The reason, of course,
Was to get a divorce
King Henry, well known for beheading
And in between frequently bedding
Broke away from the Pope
Just to further his hope
Of divorce and later re-wedding
He didn’t have very much patience with wives,
Half of whom ended up losing their lives.
Two were divorced and one of them died,
Two were beheaded, but Catherine survived.
Heavenly Master, mirror-less races ...,
fat, thin, tall, short, friend, foe--didn't you know?
Soul choose sin--soulless|soul forgive saves--us.
Saved souls Heaven bound|ground zero soulless,
selves/reborn, lame bod/mind--restored, UP ... GO!
Heavenly Master, mirror-less races ...,
Scriptures were Written, contemps..., made lawless.
Man can't deny soul's Heaven? God said so!
Soul choose sin--soulless|soul forgive saves--us.
God needs 12 votes, could pass? Ridiculous!
West--still Wild! Protestant? Not sure. Tarot???
Heavenly Master, mirror-less races ...,
The East ... not Orthodox! Cause their name says?
Andromeda's next, come on let's go ... NO!
Soul choose sin--soulless|soul forgive saves--us.
We know the outcome, the show is for us,
Gabriel. Michael ..., he waits ... the last show ...,
Soul choose sin--soulless|soul forgive saves--us.
Heavenly Master, mirror-less races ...,
Is Proximate to Intoxicant ~ as Protestant is to Contestant
Grandpa was a Bowie.
A tight-lipped protestant Ulsterman
who drifted into the Poblacht na hÉireann
in search of a cure for his cold heart.
His thin lips wed a soft Catholic girl.
He joined the Garda Síochána settling down
to breed Kerry Blue’s. After he retired, he still
wore his uniform, his neck as stiff as ever.
Grandma wrote letters to the Pope
begging for Papal forgiveness
for her heathen husband.
I have not been to Hidalgo County,
but if I were one day to go, I might try
to convince the Daughters of the Alamo
of my credentials to be worshiped
in a mild, concessionary way.
A complimentary burger, a free pass
to the museum, a photograph
of myself brandishing a big knife
at a picture of Generalissimo Santa Anna
that would suffice.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"Poblacht na hÉireann" = Republic of Ireland (Éire).
"Ulster' (Northern Ireland).
"Garda Síochána" Is the Police Force of the Republic of Ireland.
Please. Would someone correct me
If I am wrong or fail to understand?
Maybe it's just me. Or maybe I'm dreaming.
But I am at a loss and find it rather
Nonredemptive when in America, we are
Continually speaking in terms of;
The first this or the first that,
Relative to race, ethnicity, or religion?
i.e., The first Catholic, Jewish, or Protestant this,
The first female that, the first male this, the first
Black that, the first Asian this, the first Hispanic
That. And the list seems endless.
Will we ever get to the place when the mentioning of such
Will not matter? Is it wishful thinking? Is it probable or
Even possible that one day, we will all simply be AMERICANS?
Make no mistake, I understand America's sordid past and our
Dehumanizing history of disenfranchisement, but must we
Go on and on like this? Maybe I'm wrong, but I just want
To be AN AMERICAN.
093022PS
How close it was but sadly not to be
with chosen numbers falsely provident -
deserving no such serendipity
lest I remain reckless and delinquent.
Mine are the sins of a Protestant son
whose dream ticket near made me well-heeled,
but my wheel of fortune has been spun
and my jackpot eyes hermetically sealed.
No luck, no pockets of silver and gold,
no libertine joy till O’ happy dirge!
Now my Faustian spirit that sold its soul
will not my blunted senses purge.
No wild debauchery drunk and depraved
and no fast women in fast cars to abscond.
O' well, I'd only be badly behaved
with some giddy perky pneumatic blonde!
Written: December 1996
As I write ... streams slow
And a trickle of guilt
Flow, flow, flow
"Father, father, Faaathhher"
From beyond my gate and border
"Pastor, pastor, pastor"
Was the cry an hour before
He, Shady, got 5 Rands; he hoped for more
But as I write, I decide
Wonga won't be attended to
8 o'Clock at night? No, Charity will wait
I have shared uncooked & cooked rice
And the usual soups, bread, fruit
Coins adding up to 30 Rands
But mostly under 17; to enhance
My safety - giving minus predictability
So my "parishioners" see limits
But raised mostly Catholic, FATHER
Comes naturally to them -
I did not take any title at the beginning
They avoid churches, even at funerals
Tents at homes is the local culture
So I share a little, though few attend
Our Protestant style of worship
Yet, once a week I invent JesusLuvsU Day
Jesus is Love, Love, LOVE
New Tyranny
The dawn, after the rain had trumpet its force on the old roof tiles
it ceased to a soft drizzle harmless and tender.
Yes, I know I should get up at seven steeped as I´m a protestant work ethic.
Overcome by laziness, I slept for two hours more.
In my drowsiness, thought about how our freedom has been restricted by the internet,
our thought and secrets are no longer our property but shared by authorities that want
to know our innermost thoughts.
We are prisoners of an all-embracing society that will not tolerate thoughts
other than banal comments about a friend`s birthday.
What we heralded as a great instrument for communication
is perverted and spied on by our leaders.
Free speech only exists for those who have nothing to say and accept living
in the land of the convention.
Nothing can be nobler if we demand our right
not to be censured
and called seditious because we will not be trapped
in the trivial acceptance of perceived lies.
The dawn, after the rain had trumpet its force on the old roof tiles
it ceased to a soft drizzle harmless and tender.
Yes, I know I should get up at seven steeped as I´m a protestant work ethic.
Overcome by laziness, I slept for two hours more.
In my drowsiness, thought about how our freedom has been restricted by the internet,
our thought and secrets are no longer our property but shared by authorities that want
to know our innermost thoughts.
We are prisoners of an all-embracing society that will not tolerate thoughts
other than banal comments about a friend`s birthday.
What we heralded as a great instrument for communication
is perverted and spied on by our leaders.
Free speech only exists for those who have nothing to say and accept living
in the land of the convention.
Nothing can be nobler if we demand our right
not to be censured
and called seditious because we will not be trapped
in the trivial acceptance of perceived lies.
Vaccination
I have had my second shot of the vaccine
but with some trepidation, it appears many professional people
refuse to be vaccinated.
Many say it is out of principle or a religious reason
our cleaner, who is in the Jehovah witness, refuses out of religious grounds.
I bet the cleric in the protestant church where the first
to be inoculated, because they do not believe in anything
and lives in perpetual dread of death.
Like some doctors who see their patient die, but not them,
So, they fly in small planes they are not trained for.
When the plane falls from the sky
They say “why me I´m a doctor?”
I
What would you ever see, or sense, or hear
If God didn't hide? He would OVERWHELM EVERYWHERE!
II
That is why Jesus is God in disguise
God became man so man could become God (again)
Reversing the Fall, or the DISTRACTION Eve met in Satan
III
The lawyers, religious scholars, priests, leaders of the day
Could see nothing but man - a carpenter - in Trinity's Second Person
TESTIMONY: That is how he transformed me. Hindu hubris to humble "Saint"*
NOTE*
In Protestant Bible scholarship, "Saints" are all those who follow Jesus, usually after public confession, Baptism, and Bible study (more or less). It's not the canonized lights of the Catholic Church who have been "seen" doing (2) miracles.
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