Tag Archives: church

Photo finish Friday: “Missing”

Lost souls? Lost comma? Lost apostrophe? Oh, heavens.

Lost souls? Lost comma? Lost apostrophe? Oh, heavens.

If you have read Eats, Shoots and Leaves by Lynne Truss, you know the power of the comma, the apostrophe, and other well-placed parts of punctuation. Far be it for me to comment on a man’s beliefs (Okay, maybe not that far be it.), but in this case, I think it is more a matter of the missing-in-action comma and apostrophe. As it is, this church signage can lead one to believe this church is devoted to deprogramming the devout, to redirecting the religiously inclined, to subduing the souls of those who believe.

The name of the church, which is Christian, would make more sense if the sign read, “Overcoming, Believers’ Church.” As it is, the name, particularly in large white letters on a large slate-gray building (the photo only shows a part of the church exterior) looks a bit like something out of the X-Files. The aliens have stolen our apostrophes!

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Haiku to you Thursday: “Night sounds”

Train whistles, fills in
when fire engine ends wail.
Church bellows the hour.

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Filed under haiku, Haiku to You Thursday, poetry by author

Plucked from the breadlines: Food Porn found near your toaster

News Flash!

Beware of this food porn creeping into your local food store. Spotted today was FlatJacks, an innocent looking addition to your diet, promising to make life easier and in two flavors: Original and “BarBQ.”

All you need is a toaster and about 5 minutes of your time, and all your fowl desires will be met!

Chicken from a toaster

Chicken from a toaster! What next? Will pigs fly?

When asked, the chief of police said: “FlatJacks is not to be trusted. He will lay your waist, and leave you with nothing to crow about. We have one of top detectives on this and he will get to the bottom of it, and then we will lay out the facts and seek prosecution of those trafficking in this chicken s&*^t operation.”

Psychiatrists are warning that what FlatJacks has to offer could be habit forming. Said one: “It’s almost magical, what FlatJacks is promising. ‘Chicken from your toaster!’ Who ever heard of such a thing? Pure fantasy! It would be as if I said if I had enough feather dusters, I could fly.”

Even one Republican Presidential candidate has weighed in, saying: “FlatJacks is free market capitalism at its finest. We politicians used to promise a chicken in every pot. We can now promise one in every toaster! That’s progress.”

Asked if he had tried one, the politician coughed and clucked as if to clear his throat and then referred the question to his aid.

When asked about FlatJacks, the Democratic candidate said he would form a commission to study the matter, and take that commission’s conclusions under advisement.

One local preacher took no time in condemning “this abomination to the very soul of Christianity.” Wiping away sweat as he spoke outside on the church grounds where an outdoor dinner and preaching was taking place.

He continued: “Young folks today do not know the true meaning of dinner on the grounds. In my day, the men dressed in their best Sunday clothes and women wore skirts and dresses, and often wore bonnets or hats, and they brought their best homemade fried chicken. It was a little friendly competition to see who had the best. Now, well now, look around here.” He waved his arm toward his brood. “They come in summer shorts – men and women – I say, and the women, well some of them wear the scantiest of things, and bring KFC chicken, and don’t even bother to take it out of the bucket. Now, now they will be bringing these FlatJack things and demanding we have toasters outside and long extension cords, and rows and rows of toasters. This will become one big stick it and click it dinner. Stick it in the toaster and click the lever down. Stick it and click it. This is Satan’s handiwork, I tell you. Satan’s handiwork.” In the distance a roster crowed for a second time and the preacher broke down and wept.

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Filed under absurdity, Chicken, church, FlatJacks, food porn, Found story, humor, puns, wit, word play

Half a life

The church on the hill
builds on an atomic pile:
the half-life of sins.

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Filed under church, haiku, poem, poetry, sin

I, the mirror

There are days when I peek in the mirror

and see only the empty stare of a fallen reality….

I stand on the street corner outside a crooked church,

steeple cocked as if listening for a lost repent.

Dressed in a seek sucker suit,

the stripe in it as deep

as the cerulean sky above,

I cup brown rice in my hand,

my pockets bulging with it.

I hear the processional wedding march.

The battered door on the landing above me creaks.

I fling my rice high in the air

and it susurrates to the Earth

as rain and then as my tears.

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Filed under church, mirror, poem, poetry, words