POETRY
Her Great Faith
She tells me she has found hope in God’s grace.
The lamb’s blood is hers and hopes of rebirth
all past sins forgiven the day she faced
a life she despised and regained its worth.
Prayer her mantra now ends each new day
worship in the lord’s house she’ll seldom miss
clean now of liquor and drugs she’ll say
it was time and warns me of the Judas kiss.
Where vices and wickedness wear false smiles
to entrap and snare with the devil’s work
I’m free she says and you burdened by trials
can be saved too, she catches my faint smirk.
I kiss her face and hands and leave her be
her Bible in hand I now plan to read.
Rapture
She speaks of crystal meth as a live thing
that sucked her soul until it left her drained
ambling dazed past stop signs to endless sins
the troubled tailspin map of chasing pain.
High, feeling nothing through each savage turn
beatings from broken men short stints in jail
for minor crimes and cash that she burned
between revolving door rehabs she’d fail.
Jesus saved her she says now in tears
Recalling when she drove to a drug buy
misjudged a turn and to the river veered
heard a voice tell her she would not die
she escaped the car, the river and drugs
claims it no miracle, just God’s great love.
Rp Verlaine lives and writes in New York City. He has an MFA in creative writing from City College. He taught in New York Public schools for many years. Now retired from teaching, he continues to write and do photography in New York. His poetry has appeared in Atlas Poetica, The Linnet’s Wings, Haikuniverse, Stardust Haiku, The Local Train, Proletaria, Scryptic, Humankind Journal, Fractured Haiku, Under The Basho, Plum Tree Tavern, Fresh Out Magazine, Prune Juice, Incense Dreams, Best Poetry, Blazevox, Pikers Press.
Photo by Masha Raymers on Pexels.com
Heart of Flesh Literary Journal 