ROCKIN’ and HUMMIN’

                        Billye Okera

                           ©2004

He would tell her she was beautiful

And she would say, “Baby, flesh and blood

Don’t enter the Kingdom of God.”

He would say that he loved her

And she’d reply – “I must love the Lord

With all my heart, mind and soul.”

The apostasy was his wanting her

And she seeing need only as lust

As she crawled into the tomb of her fiftieth summer

Thinkin' – if I ask it – it will come

If  I ask it – it will come.  But never did nor would

For she had numbed herself against starlight

  And the dance.

She spoke of passion as incubus plying her immortality

His arms about her as sure pathways to perdition

To the hardness of him as he pressed close

She chanted – “Get back demon! Get back demon!

  Get     Back     Demon!

For lack of loftier word

She was a sad sistah

Seeing body separate and serrated from soul

She sought in the Volume of the Book

The lover who would not/could not personify

 Her need for touch.

She took to rockin’ and hummin’

And he to knockin’ at looser gates for entry

The sentry to the door-post of his heart

Tight against true intrusion.

He would tell her time was fleeting

And she’d say, “one day is as a thousand years.”

He’d say to her I am yours if you let me

And she would say - - “Jesus be my husband – and Him only.”

The apostasy was her dreams unfilled

Her arms curled about him reckless

And his - - him still loving her

As he chose to make love to, but not love another

Knowing flesh and blood will not enter there

Flesh and blood will not enter there  -

He wallowed – walking wayward ways

  Of wilderness.

He spoke of passion as gift

Gazing toward her for safe harbor.

Her arms about his as grace – denied and deified in absence.

To the hardness of her heart as he pressed close

He chanted – “save her, Jesus!  Save Her, Jesus!

  SAVE     HER     JESUS!