New Poem: "The Lady Is a Christian"

The Lady Is a Christian

Tethered to the fence post of propriety,

      her home, property, and religion bind her

her freedom from the open spaces of her soul.

      A kind lady without, a cautious lady

within, she speaks her mind because she has

      earned the right; but she can never admit

that she may be wrong, and stretches the hubris

      of her tether to the snapping point.

She does not believe in the Virgin Birth nor in

      the stain of Original Sin, and cannot buy

into the Resurrection of Jesus, but she maintains

      that she is a Christian. She believes her soul

will live forever, but cannot fathom how her soul

      cannot exist before its birth in time; and

this confuses her Christian mind and stretches

      the tether of her hubris to the snapping point.

She serves Jesus daily on the altar of her home,

      lawn, and gardens, and before she goes to bed

at night she prays for strength to live another

      day because her life is incomplete. She

desperately wants the key to spiritual freedom,

      which lies in her own heart; but her mind

keeps getting in the way, and she stretches the

      hubris of her tether to the snapping point.

A tireless widow of eighty, she’s the envy of all

      her peers, cleaning her immaculate home daily,

mowing her lawn, tending to her flower and

      vegetable gardens, and walking three miles

every day; but she loves smoking cigarettes

      and justifies her habit by calling it her only

vice and stretches the hubris of her tether

      to the snapping point.

She attends Bible classes every week to learn

     the way, the truth, and the life, but her pastor

has lost his faith and wears his collar for daily

     bread alone; and the evening wears thin as she

listens to his agnostic gruel. And on behalf of her

      savior Jesus Christ she stretches the hubris

of her tether to the snapping point, because in

       her heart the lady is a Christian.