Two Poems:  One to Chew on and One to Lick
By Kenneth Chafin

Today’s Prophet

If he were operating
on the State Fair Midway,
They would call him
“Fast Eddie,”
but since he pastors
big city churches,
they just call him
“Doctor What’s-His-Name.”

He read books
and collected ideas
for his sermons,
but his teflon mind
kept the ideas
from coloring convictions.
He developed thick
calluses on his soul
from straddling fences.

From the pulpit
he urged the people
to resist culture’s mold,
but they modeled after him
and sought safe stances
on complex issues of life.
They never understood,
nor did their leader,
why the church seemed
so irrelevant to outsiders,
and ofttimes to themselves.

Eskimo Pie

There are days
when the juices flow
a mile a minute
and I can do
anything I try.

And there are days
and this is one of them
when the most I can do
is stand in the sun
in front of the store
and eat an Eskimo Pie.

Updated Tuesday, January 24, 2006