Lessons of fear, discovery of joy.
Lessons taught in the basement
had hints of dark on the edges,
smiles, considered suspicious,
seemed always mistaken, there.
Upstairs, each message more dire,
beginnings and middles would vary
but endings were always the same,
we would burn and be forsaken
for ever and all of time,
at a drop of transgression’s hat.
Rewards carried frames of terror
to hang upon bedroom walls,
reminders of narrow escapes.
Dread warnings were proven to be
too effective, unquestionably,
a boy turned away in dismay.
No path would there be to follow
as the young man stumbled about
tripping from badlands to barrens,
he struggled alone and confused
through ages of sputtering growth,
to a fall in the middle, face down.
At last overcome by exhaustion,
assistance accepted from Christ,
he stood up again, and was me.
a startling new revelation
washed away fears of the past
I laughed for all I had missed.
I wonder sometimes of that church
and the spiritual meals they fed,
angst or despair were main courses
but no joy ran over their cups.
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