Mind Made Up?


Elaine Thomas 2021 Poet Laureate

Mind Made Up?

 

My grandmama taught me that prayin’ is good for the soul

Prayin’ ain’t nothin’ but sayin’ what’s in your heart

Some folks say faith can move mountains

I guess so if they know so

Other folks say that you can heal bones

But not a truly broken heart

What I believe is people need hope

They need to believe that love conquers all

And that if rain don’t wash away the dirt

A good glass of whiskey and Keb Mo might

People been chattin’ about meditation

Substitute for keeping your mouth closed

Paying attention to where you’re standin’

‘Cause If you ridin’ a wild buckin’ horse

You can’t be thinkin’ about Christmas

Sweet potato pie- and black-eyed peas

You gotta hold on to the reigns

You gotta focus on where you’re headed

My granddaddy could fix almost anything

Except the broken wings of his children

When his wife passed from having too many

Leavin’ their farmyard full of dandelion weeds

You know pruning is easy once you pick up a rake

I can’t put too much credit in people’s talk

Sometimes it sounds like coyotes howlin’

Hungry bellies can’t think too straight

While some animals will eat almost anything

If it’s lookin’ pretty and smellin’ sweet

My sister used to beg me to love her

Like she needed my feelings to have a name

She got fat with self-pity and faded dusty

My brother wanted to be a local marvel hero

Got himself a badge and a legal 45

Got his butt horse whipped with it by a junkie

But he survived chasin’ loose bad gals

My aunt who grew up in that barren yard

Got a bad case of religion in her mature years

Now she’s fanning her lonesome self away

With other sanctified found themselves again

On a hard wooden baptist church bench

A lot of people claim to know who God is

Seen him sitting at them famous crossroads

Picking her teeth with a tree branch

Others say they felt them on the last full moon

Some claim to know him her it personally

Because they read a good book

Lot of folks think they know it all

All I know is that if faith is our number one game

Then hope is our main pawn in it

If we lose that

Then we lose everything

 

Camille Elaine Thomas

January 02, 2022

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