By Water and By Blood

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Kenneth2816
Posts: 1619
Joined: 01 Jun 2008, 09:17

By Water and By Blood

#1 Post by Kenneth2816 » 20 Jul 2018, 20:36

They shall take up serpents,
and if they drink any deadly
thing, it will not harm them.
Mark 16:18

Walnut Gap Free Will Baptist,
peel-paint clipboard
sags just a little,
floor bows in the middle.

A hundred years they've come
By mule and buckboard,
Model T and pickup truck

down from the hills
and hollers, moonshine breath
, Bible in one hand, baby in the other.

Deacons bring the trunk,with seven copperheads,one for each deadly sin.

The faithful have come to inquire of the Lord.

Brother Few Lyday opens
with a prayer in unknown tongues.

Womenfolk swoon and chatter, demons flee.

The men dance
with snakes knotted
around their necks
like the scarves of Salome.

One latches onto the cheek of Columbus Mathis. He's been bit six times so far.

Children point and shout, " yer gonna die, yer gonna die."

They take Columbus up on Hog Back to see what the Holy Ghost will do.

A divot in his face is already browning over, like dead spots on a lawn .

They lay him under a Locust tree.
He motions for water
with cupped hands .


They shake their heads No.
"Them ain't the rules,"
They remind him.
"Iffen God's agin' it
ain't no fear in it".

By sun up, his lips done swole shut. They give him a stick
to scratch on the dirt with.

"I'm Glory bound,"
he says.

Brother Lyday breaks out a harmonica,
Columbus' wife has the tambourine.

BobBradshaw
Posts: 2683
Joined: 03 Jun 2016, 21:03

Re: By Water and By Blood

#2 Post by BobBradshaw » 20 Jul 2018, 21:59

Well done. You put us there on a the church and frenzy...I would consider removing the last 2 lines... the punch line is with the “Glory Bound” lines

Kenneth2816
Posts: 1619
Joined: 01 Jun 2008, 09:17

Re: By Water and By Blood

#3 Post by Kenneth2816 » 21 Jul 2018, 23:57

Thanks Bob. Here in the mountains of NC, this still goes on. This particular church had 2,members of the same family die. No one is the "leader" so it's
hard for law enforcement to prosecute.

One of my ancestors was Sheriff and
was threatened should he ever come .back

FranktheFrank
Posts: 1983
Joined: 02 Mar 2016, 18:07
Location: Between the mountains and the sea

Re: By Water and By Blood

#4 Post by FranktheFrank » 22 Jul 2018, 13:17

I am so loathe to criticise these people
and their strange take on scripture.
I can understand and yet cannot go that way.
I cannot judge, they will be judged by
someone perfectly able to discern.


The poem opens up an awkward section
of America, the place of religious freedom.
People live and die by their understanding
and yet.
The poet has refrained from jdugement
I like that, yet paints the story so well
so true, so honest. There is problem
he resists telling us what should happen.

Very good.
Shooting sheriffs isn't good Christianity.

I understand your lines are too long in places
because of your phone.

Kenneth2816
Posts: 1619
Joined: 01 Jun 2008, 09:17

Re: By Water and By Blood

#5 Post by Kenneth2816 » 23 Jul 2018, 00:23

Thank you Frank. Certainly one of the most bizzare passages

FranktheFrank
Posts: 1983
Joined: 02 Mar 2016, 18:07
Location: Between the mountains and the sea

Re: By Water and By Blood

#6 Post by FranktheFrank » 29 Jul 2018, 02:27

Ken, if you can sort out the line lengths
I can nominate,
can't go as it is.

Kenneth2816
Posts: 1619
Joined: 01 Jun 2008, 09:17

Re: By Water and By Blood

#7 Post by Kenneth2816 » 29 Jul 2018, 18:22

Ill give it a go Frank

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