POEM
Spicey Bible Study
The Good Book Leads To Love
In Leavenworth, Washington,
Holly and Nathan talked
over Redhook on his birch balcony
about why he was the way he was.
Holly wanted love
and hoped he did, too.
Holly wrapped her long,
red hair around her neck.
Her green eyes danced
when she laughed
and sparkled when she spoke.
She wore tight blue jeans
and a Hurley T-shirt.
Nathan invited her over.
She’d teach him what
the Bible had to say,
and he’d pretend
he didn’t know.
Holly smoked a cigarette
as if they’d just had sweaty sex
or like she wanted to do so.
But it was the sight of nature
that made her as wet as the river
rushing over dense rocks.
Holly turned her head
and moved her eyes around.
Her tense gaze softened.
Nathan eyed her,
and unclenched
the pressure in his jaw.
Holly brought a Bible,
but they didn’t open it,
at least not right away.
They attended the same
church for three months.
Holly noticed Nathan
on a Sunday morning
that she prayed for a love
that not even the devil
could take away.
Nathan bit his bottom lip,
and asked God to forgive
the lust shaking their trust.
Nathan hated love,
but his hopeless romanticism
wouldn’t let him dismiss it, either.
Uptight and blind to the serene
river’s ripples as the moon reflected
casting shadows through the thick
stacks of evergreen trees.
The day’s chipper birds faded
a soft river flow and a light
breeze separated the trees.
Pine and chicken from the grill
five miles away filled the air.
Holly wanted warmth,
but every man was like the rest.
Holly asked Nathan this before
she caught a thought with a breath
to backtrack and ask that.
Nathan avoided women
with love on their red lips.
She’d be in a different mind;
a wrong state of mind.
Nathan thought before he thought
better of himself.
Lipstick stains on his pillowcase
withstood his encounters
with women.
Holly said she knew it.
She knew what was wrong
with Nathan.
He needed her.
Holly’s arrogant and alluring
self-confidence pulled
at something he thought he’d
lost in his heart,
the ability to feel love.
Holly removed lust
and replaced it with a secure
attachment, and she
needed Nathan
as much as he did her.
Two years later, bells rang
from the church they attended.
God answered their prayers
because he wanted to,
not because he could.
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