I Often Wonder

                                           by Brenda Joy Dobson

Sometimes a "cuss word" works!

It smacks the reader somewhere inbetween today's

social acceptibilty and uneasy, ubiquitous tolerance...Splat!

 "Tisk! Tisk," the "put-off" naysayer pouts, then removes the book from the shelf.

I once found an old worn out book entitled, "Uncle Tom's Cabin,"

hidden in the bottom of Pap-Pap's side table like porn.

It contained black and white pictures, of Black and White people and bad words I was told I wouldn't understand.

Ripped from my hands like hot coals, just after I saw it was written by a lady named, S-T-O-W-E.

I often wondered long after that day, if the book was filled with "cuss words," you know, the ones kids are told not to say.

As a writer, a sage poet, and a wordsmithy in these times, I sometimes write a "cuss word" or two,

for there are moments  when only 

a richly-placed "cuss word," will do.

It is written in scriptures that Peter acted up all the time.

I often wonder if his fellow travelers were ever annoyed,

and let a "cuss word' rip from time-to-time.

Yes, even Jesus, on his journey, cursed a fig tree,

and me,

I often wonder what "cuss word" He abruptly said, 

that caused the withering of that tree.

bjd