Androgynous highs and lows—

testosterone freezes

and estrogen flows

like snow,

sun-bathin on top of Kilimanjaro,

meltin glaciers below.

The neon sign

to the promised land

has faded.

To the working-class

happy endings

are overrated. 

how quickly we forget,

laying down palm branches

to casting stones a week later,

breaking stained glass windows

to our mansions,

crucifying our Creator.

The Ragman stopped his cart. Quietly, he walked to the woman, stepping round tin cans, dead toys, and Pampers.

My superhero alarm clock

Double-dares me to suit-up

For PE’s mile hike

Up life’s strange coming-of-age,

A call to braces, acne, and puberty.

I felt like Icarus, whose hubris led him to fly too close to sun, which melted wax on his shoulders, causing feathers to unfasten, and thus his hope of freedom to come crashing down like one of Zeus’s lightning bolts.

“Redeem and restore
What the locusts have eaten—
O Lord—
The schemes Satan’s woven,
Our innocence … stolen.”

True happiness is biblical, moral, pleasurable, historical, and necessary for Christian character.

This poem was inspired by my friend and pastor, Matt Whitlock, and his sermon on “The Silently Simple Life.”

Is your view of human nature Stevensonian or Shelleyian? Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde or Dr. Frankenstein?