CONSEQUENCES
We were simple little towns people. We weren’t prepared for her. Her name was Consequences, bold girl, she was, and beautiful. She was tall, with long straight hair and small eyes like slits in her face with gray peeping out. Her lips carried a strange smile, as if it was an attachment or something. She always stood akilter, never straight. And anything she said, which was very little, made no sense to the rest of us. She lived in her own world, like a fog. I remember, while growing up she was in my class at school. Weird. She did strange things even then. She had no shame. She’d walk right up and pull your hair, if she wanted to. No explanation. Then she’d just walk away.
When they found Mr. Miller, dead in his garage and Mrs. Miller no where around, probably off with her lover again, who was there? Consequences. And when Sara Crawford fell out of the tree and broke her spine, while running from her mother’s abuse with the electric cord, because she had spilled the sugar; who just happened to be passing by and stopped? Consequences. She always showed up at the oddest times. Just standing there in her slanted stand with flashes of gray peeping out of the slits she used for eyes.
Then one night I was awakened out of my sleep. I thought I had left the T.V. on but I checked, it was off. My room was lit by some kind of light shining from the street. I smelled smoke and I could hear a low moaning.
“My God,” I whispered to myself. “Somebody’s house must be on fire”. I hurried out of bed stubbing my toe on the night table. Hopping over to the window, I peeped out of the venetian blinds. To my amazement, I saw a group of people, the town’s people. They were carrying torches and Mayor Bradley was in front like he was the leader. They were chanting something and a chill went down my spine. I gasped in disbelief, as the light from the torches reflected the anger and hate that gleamed in their eyes. But when I spotted Reverend Blocker in the crowd and Mother Hannah who had opened her home as a shelter for wayward transient people, I knew this was more than serious, this was desperate. They were closer now. I could make out what they were saying. The words fired out like missiles,
“Kill Consequences, kill Consequences”. But Consequences hadn’t arrived....Yet.
SAVED
Like a Prisoner with
a life sentence in the hole
I was held captive
Satan had my soul
In the dark I groped
no image of myself
fear taking away my breath
paranoid with the
loneliness of death
ungroomed with over grown burdens
sores erupting blisters forming
I stank with the stench of sin
soiled beyond recognition
When others regarded me from a distance
Jesus embraced me in his arms
He took His blood and washed my existence
and with His gentleness uncovered my brilliance
He scoured me with His mercy
made me smoother than ivory
He scrubbed with His grace
removing guilt’s debris
He doused me in His peace
made me lighter than frost
He soaked me in His joy
in His love I get lost
He dipped me in His Image
I emerged more elegant than pearls
He drenched me in His light
flung darkness away
in a huge hurl
He blanched me in His spirit
snatched me from death row
He washed me in His blood
made me whiter than snow
