WHEN COLOR IMPLICATE

WHEN COLOR IMPLICATES FAITH OR HEDONISM

God save me
From the trials and tribulations
Of being hounded
By missionaries
Sniffing at my door,
Stopping me on streets.

They see my brown face,
And assume the heathen in me
Dancing naked around a fire,
With body paint
On colored breasts and buttocks
Shaking wildly to devil’s drums,
In red jungles
Of the backward Eastern world.

I like to tell them
How I miss the dancing.
They ask me,
“Come join us,
We can discuss Jesus;
He is forgiving of all sins.”
I say, “Only
If I can wear my loin cloth.”