Vipers, Flies, And Women Of The Cloth
James Coleman
Slink back with me
To those golden days
Of yesteryear
When hamburgers cost a dime
And boys wondered if an umbrella
Could parachute them safely
From the porch roof to earth.
I used to kill fifty flies
A day, and kiss the faces
On the covers of True Confessions.
I was afraid of mice.
One day I challenged God
To make it rain if He
“Was so all powerful.”
And it was that minute exactly
My life began to rot.
I thought you might be angels
Come to absolve me from
The sins I’d committed
Thus I implored you…
“Cure me Magdalene…
Immerse me again
In the baptismal fluids
Of your cup
Give me water, give me grace…
Taste like Salvation.
Originally published in the anthology Beyond The Frontier; African-American Poetry for the 21st Century edited by E. Ethelbert Miller, Black Classic Press 2002