POETRY

Ice a Jesus
By Al Staggs, Chaplain and Performing Artist

Bedford, TX

Ice a Jesus and Ex a Jesus.

Ice a Jesus is a cold reading of the texts

And it’s a good one to have

If you are the Klan or the Nazis or Us.

Finding an appropriate text is needful

To fashion our xenophobias

And make us righteous soldiers of good

Against all that we deem evil.

Take a text and the life of Jesus\And mold it to your whims.

It helps to have a church

And willing crowds to hear\and add hymns and prayers

And ice a Jesus can be done.

Ice a Jesus has served many a good cause

Slavery, racism, apartheid, fascism, sexism,

Anti-Semitism, nationalism

Just to name a few.

Great causes require moral authority.

Ex a Jesus requires

Painstaking skill,

Sensitivity to the Spirit\And the possibility of reform.

These would never further our cause.

So ice a Jesus will serve us just fine.

The Patriot
By Floyd Emmerling, Bee Branch, AR

The patriot must love the whole wide world

     If in his own country he would be safe

     He takes pride if old glory is unfurled

When Uncle Sam behaves with love and grace.

     Preemption might be paranoid

          Don’t say it is for oil!

     Deceit might breed more terror

          Don’t you think?

          It is false patriotism that

So disregards another people’s worth

          If all men are created equal then

The patriot must love the whole wide world.

Updated Friday, December 24, 2004