Two Fables

Every Sunday morning
Pastor Millard Bradley
Preached about the Rapture.

The notion intensely
Excited him. He said,
Repeatedly, he hoped

He would live to see it,
He’d be seized while preaching,
Taken up to Heaven.

Every Sunday morning
For decades, he would warn
His small congregation

Of believers waiting
For the end of this world,
For joyful ascension,

In case any of them
Weren’t, in fact, born again,
How awful it would be

To be among the left
Behind, and not among
The forgiven taken.

He was forced to retire
When he couldn’t recall
Or read Sunday sermons,

And he died with the rest
Of the folks in the home,
Who each died one by one,

Though sometimes clustering.
The skies never opened.
Not saying. Just saying.