"Minimum Wage"

Earn a paycheck,
Not God’s grace;
Earn your pillow,
Not salvation

The check we strive for is
Six feet long and six feet deep;
But it was already done,
Already finished

The gift we get,
The love of God
Wrapped in flesh, was
Twelve feet up
And millennia foretold

Learn your Savior,
Who brought God’s grace;
Learn your Lord,
Who gives you rest

"Semiquincentennial"

Go-karts
Pizza
Pizza
Waiting for ice cream
Live music
Waiting for ice cream
Live music
Waiting with i
                      c
                         e

Anyone have a napkin?

Fireworks—
right overhead! 

                              c
                                r
                                  e America!

"Pledge"

I pledge obeisance to the Lord
of the universe and all it contains,
and to the cross on which He hung,
one Kingdom of our God
Who, without partiality,
offers freedom and salvation to all

---

adapted from “The Pledge of Allegiance”
Francis Bellamy, 1892
Public domain

"Where My Heart Is"

I dig for treasure—
It’s hidden
And beyond my grasp.

I don't really want it,
Don’t want the responsibility,
Or the ache in my back.

I know that,
According to the law in this place,
It will end up in a museum.
I’d get my name in the paper,
But what good is that?

It’s not mine to mine,
And not mine to dole out,
And not mine at all.

I quit the search
And surrender my shovel

"Again, So Soon?"

Here we are again at the vet...
While I was locking the shed,
You escaped your kennel bed
And left me a package in shreds.

I called the wife. “Go!” she said,
“For he soon could be dead!”
I know it’s not toxic—I had checked—
But your belly full of a full pound of bread?

On the highway I drove (admittedly sped).
Registered as you’re fetched by a tech.
The doctor gave you some meds.
Soon your snack came back ou—oh, dread!

“It will cost much” said the girl at the desk
—Not at all unexpected—
“It’s worth it,” said I, nodding my head.
“After all, he’s my very best friend.”