The Gospel
Steven L. Akins
Written while reminiscing about childhood Sunday mornings in a rural Methodist church in Alabama...
My name is Jesus Christ,
My friends call me the Lord.
I am a loaf of bread and a bottle of wine.
I am a young sheep.
I am a drink of water that will last a lifetime.
My parents weren’t married.
My father is a part of speech.
People say that they can’t tell us apart.
The first man that ever lived
Was a ball of six day old dirt.
He was breathed on by a bush
That had been set on fire.
His wife was a bone.
They lived in a garden
Until they got kicked out
For listening to a snake
Who told them that they could eat apples.
The first lawyer was a mountain climber
Who didn’t like to wear shoes.
He had a talk with that blazing shrub
And got a bunch of rules
Written on a rock from it,
But he got mad
When no one would follow them,
And he threw them down
And they broke.
I spent my life telling people
Not to throw rocks.
One of my best friends was a rock
And I built a church on him.
I can teach you a language
That no one understands
And we’ll go fishing.
_____
Steven Lewis Akins, a native of Jasper, Alabama, was born on May 28, 1966 and spent his early years as a resident of Birmingham. An alumni of the Alabama School of Fine Arts, where he studied visual arts, he later went on to find expression for his interests in history and social commentary through creative writing and poetry. He currently resides in his home town of Jasper with his wife and two children.
©
Steven Akins