Up until now, I have used the Blog on the Faith Heroines Alive website as a place to give information about the drama ministry. Having realized that the other tabs on the website are better for that purpose, I will start using the Blog as a place to publish a blog. Brilliant! Just kidding. I’m a slow learner. Here is a poem I wrote recently when challenged by a contest sponsored by Frontline for Justice, an organization formed to fight human trafficking.
Look after Pearl
“Can we move to another table?”
I said to my friend. “it’s that guy.”
“Sure,” she said, “Is he bothering you?”
“Yeah, he looks funny, and I,..”
“No problem, I see a place there by the door,”
We picked up our drinks and new shoes,
Settled into a cozy brown leather nook
To catch up on each other’s news.
“I’ve been trying to figure out what to do –
About my neighbor,” I told her.
My eyes teared up, I think, since she said,
“Go on, you can cry on my shoulder.”
“Oh, I probably shouldn’t be that upset.
It’s the tacky RV in his driveway.
He said it would be there for only a week,
But it’s been there two weeks and a day.”
“What will you do?” she asked me,
“Well, I told him it can’t stay there.
He says his son will move it soon,
But honestly, it’s so unfair!”
Then I thought I might be complaining too much,
And it’s more fun to laugh, Heaven knows,
So the talked turned to daughters and pedicures
While our mothers still wear pantyhose.
I did ask my friend what she thought of the gal
At church who’d been asked to sing
When I had offered first, so I wondered,
“Don’t my feelings count for something?”
She was looking away toward the man,
The one I didn’t want near me.
“I think he’s blind, he’s got a dog.”
“Oh my gosh. Hope that he didn’t hear me.”
“It’s been great to get together,” she said,
“For shopping and a chance to chat.”
“Don’t worry. Your feelings matter to me
And to God. I do know that.”
I thought she probably meant it,
But she also just wanted to go,
And I had a meeting I’d said I’d attend,
Just this once, I’m so busy, you know.
The traffic was bad. I was late to walk in,
And the video at first was spinning.
I thought I could maybe just slip out the back
After this uninspiring beginning.
But then it came through and there on the screen
Was a beautiful thin Asian girl,
Or maybe a woman, I couldn’t quite tell,
They said they would call her Pearl.
They showed where Pearl lived,
They told how she survived.
She could not even trust
That help might have arrived.
That men would hurt Pearl
Was a fact of her life.
Every day after day
Pearl had lived through such strife.
Pearl did not know what it meant
To have feelings.
But I was distraught
My emotions were reeling.
I started to sob,
I didn’t know why.
What good did it do
To sit here and cry?
“Oh, God, are you there?
Do Pearl’s feelings matter?
And then I remembered
All my stupid chatter.
“Father, forgive me,
For I have forgotten
The lost and the friendless,
The putrid, the rotten,
The places where comfort
Can never be felt.
Oh, Father, forgive me,
My heart wants to melt.”
“I forgive you,” God spoke,
“But I’ve got some news.
Get off your knees
And take back those shoes.
Stop fretting about
Things you cannot control.
Use your time, thoughts, and money
To make others whole.
Stop judging people
Based on how they look.
Come to me for direction,
It’s all in the Book.
Though you are getting old
You’re a selfish vain girl.
Now you’ve got your orders.
LOOK AFTER PEARL.
Her feelings matter.
The Cross proves they do.
Jesus died there for Pearl
And He died there for you.”