Bells

Young couples on the sidewalk talk of white paper and a first kiss,
while sheep hidden in the hills of Virginia are birthing lambs
amidst the millions of flies and the morning fog.

The fog pours down the hills, across the swamps and marshes,
and the fog finds its way through neighborhoods and cars,
in the summer when the river is full and the heat is high.
In the foggy backseat of her mother's Buick they are naked and damp,
a baby already growing in her belly and God smiling in the dark.

They go to the white church Sundays, the wine dark, the sermon stern.
Corruption in the crumbling schools! Corruption in the closed city hall!
Burning heart in Mary's breast! Burning tongue in Jesus' face!