~note: This deals with Christianity, but also with two authors in the Bible section. Part of this, therefore, new people won't understand. And be forwarned: you try to convert me, and not only will that fail, but I will be *very* *dissapointed* and you don't like either of us dissapointed.
-------------------------------------------------
-Vrai-
Joking with a friend at a T stop,
then watching puzzled as a man passed up by,
going on both escalators, leaving slips of paper
before leaving on the train he came in on.
I went and looked.
Pamphlets, all of them.
With their only reference the Bible
and poor writing style for persuasion.
So I went up and down the escalators
and picked each one up,
and now they reside in my trash can.
People say they're ways to witness.
I say they're cheap ways out.
Can you ask a pamphlet questions
about error, inconsistency, all that?
If you want them to join your religion,
and make a personal relationship with your God,
at least make a relationship with them first!
------------------------------------------------
bitter cold, flowing mob
on the day we wear masks
openly for once.
such a pretty pretty sight
laughter and joking and fright
this is salem, and we
are the irreverent.
and then as we continued
we saw the witch killers.
tall signs with scare tactics
dripping all over
and many people chanting hell
and offering redemption only
in their leaden thought chains.
i stood quietly in my costume,
voodoo priestess, watching the arrogance.
and when one looked at me
to offer their zeal and religion
the same kind as brough the trials,
and lead so many to writhe from the
branches of a tree
(and one to die under a hill of stone)
i turned and muttered "murderers."
there were others, challenging,
declaring openly their heathen ways
and speaking their minds.
but i walked away.
who am i to tell them of their god?
if they can blind themselfves to his orders
of rape murder genocide
how could I restore their sight?
I am but a quiet asian girl.
--------------------------------------------
There was a nice man at a street corner
near my college, fat jovial man
in a straw hat. He was offering just
green-covered New Testaments, a Gideon.
Not demanding, not cursing,
just holdng a book out for any to take.
I conversed with him for a while on
different Bible translations,
and ended up with a green cover myself.
I looked through it and then put it on my desk,
where it sat before Jon threw it away.
---------------------------------------------
this intersection irks me.
whiny activists, take a pamphlet,
so right in our arrogance.
and now, again, what do we see?
there's a big board on a stand
and it has a crisp new twenty.
the board says you can win it
if you can pass the test.
now, this is interesting.
but as i listen i know them.
"what if i could prove evolution wrong?"
and then i find one
and stand in front of him,
innocent me, and ask what the dare is.
"Have you ever lied?"
yes.
"Have you ever stolen?"
my mind equivocates, but I say yes.
"have you ever disobeyed your parents?"
--------------------------------------------
And this is where I laugh.
Not because of the utter stupidity of that question
as posed to a teenager,
but because I know exactly where this is going.
And I wonder --
if I had said no to the two above and yes to the third,
and told him my parents beat and abused me,
would I still be in the place he claimed?
--------------------------------------------
yes.
he starts talking about how we have all
broken "god's" word, and i interrupt him there
"...and therefore we are unworthy to be in the
sight of god because we have sinned and only
accepting jesus of nazareth as my personal savior
will get me into heaven?"
he blinks
stutters
i don't think he's seen an intelligent one all day.
and he manages to croak,
"That's a gross oversimplification..."
"but it's true, isn't it?"
---------------------------------------------
"Well, you see I'm busy, so I should go home now."
Our poor bewildered evangelist manages to ask me
what faith background I am from.
I turn back, close my eyes, smile, raise a finger to my eye,
and say cheerfully,
"Atheist!" in as Xelloss-esque a voice I can.
---------------------------------------------
Do you know, the Christians gave us a fish?
it died.
At Welcome Night, they gave out free goldfish.
half-dead fish. both died within a week.
Orange and Cream, we called them, for the colors.
it was a plot to make us consider our own mortality.
I cried. I like fishies.
also likes sushi, don't tell anyone.
So have you figured it out yet?
Java, the Rose Bride Striving to Be a Prince.
What is the opposite? A Rose Bride content to be a Bride,
sneering at the people, living in quiet despair.
Anthy. Anshii. Japanese syllabary.
Hasn't anyone figured out who I am?
who i am?
-------------------------------------------------
-Vrai-
Joking with a friend at a T stop,
then watching puzzled as a man passed up by,
going on both escalators, leaving slips of paper
before leaving on the train he came in on.
I went and looked.
Pamphlets, all of them.
With their only reference the Bible
and poor writing style for persuasion.
So I went up and down the escalators
and picked each one up,
and now they reside in my trash can.
People say they're ways to witness.
I say they're cheap ways out.
Can you ask a pamphlet questions
about error, inconsistency, all that?
If you want them to join your religion,
and make a personal relationship with your God,
at least make a relationship with them first!
------------------------------------------------
bitter cold, flowing mob
on the day we wear masks
openly for once.
such a pretty pretty sight
laughter and joking and fright
this is salem, and we
are the irreverent.
and then as we continued
we saw the witch killers.
tall signs with scare tactics
dripping all over
and many people chanting hell
and offering redemption only
in their leaden thought chains.
i stood quietly in my costume,
voodoo priestess, watching the arrogance.
and when one looked at me
to offer their zeal and religion
the same kind as brough the trials,
and lead so many to writhe from the
branches of a tree
(and one to die under a hill of stone)
i turned and muttered "murderers."
there were others, challenging,
declaring openly their heathen ways
and speaking their minds.
but i walked away.
who am i to tell them of their god?
if they can blind themselfves to his orders
of rape murder genocide
how could I restore their sight?
I am but a quiet asian girl.
--------------------------------------------
There was a nice man at a street corner
near my college, fat jovial man
in a straw hat. He was offering just
green-covered New Testaments, a Gideon.
Not demanding, not cursing,
just holdng a book out for any to take.
I conversed with him for a while on
different Bible translations,
and ended up with a green cover myself.
I looked through it and then put it on my desk,
where it sat before Jon threw it away.
---------------------------------------------
this intersection irks me.
whiny activists, take a pamphlet,
so right in our arrogance.
and now, again, what do we see?
there's a big board on a stand
and it has a crisp new twenty.
the board says you can win it
if you can pass the test.
now, this is interesting.
but as i listen i know them.
"what if i could prove evolution wrong?"
and then i find one
and stand in front of him,
innocent me, and ask what the dare is.
"Have you ever lied?"
yes.
"Have you ever stolen?"
my mind equivocates, but I say yes.
"have you ever disobeyed your parents?"
--------------------------------------------
And this is where I laugh.
Not because of the utter stupidity of that question
as posed to a teenager,
but because I know exactly where this is going.
And I wonder --
if I had said no to the two above and yes to the third,
and told him my parents beat and abused me,
would I still be in the place he claimed?
--------------------------------------------
yes.
he starts talking about how we have all
broken "god's" word, and i interrupt him there
"...and therefore we are unworthy to be in the
sight of god because we have sinned and only
accepting jesus of nazareth as my personal savior
will get me into heaven?"
he blinks
stutters
i don't think he's seen an intelligent one all day.
and he manages to croak,
"That's a gross oversimplification..."
"but it's true, isn't it?"
---------------------------------------------
"Well, you see I'm busy, so I should go home now."
Our poor bewildered evangelist manages to ask me
what faith background I am from.
I turn back, close my eyes, smile, raise a finger to my eye,
and say cheerfully,
"Atheist!" in as Xelloss-esque a voice I can.
---------------------------------------------
Do you know, the Christians gave us a fish?
it died.
At Welcome Night, they gave out free goldfish.
half-dead fish. both died within a week.
Orange and Cream, we called them, for the colors.
it was a plot to make us consider our own mortality.
I cried. I like fishies.
also likes sushi, don't tell anyone.
So have you figured it out yet?
Java, the Rose Bride Striving to Be a Prince.
What is the opposite? A Rose Bride content to be a Bride,
sneering at the people, living in quiet despair.
Anthy. Anshii. Japanese syllabary.
Hasn't anyone figured out who I am?
who i am?