Preacher In The Rain
written by: Ian Fletcher
He stands alone, Good Book in hand,
a predator in the pedestrian zone
accosting shoppers as they pass by
a few of whom stop to listen a while
or even debate if they’re so inclined.
I, of the former kind, am fascinated
by the mentality of this driven soul
who has overleapt the bounds of reality
and unlocked the mystery of creation
to posit a being he names the Lord
who reigns over all that is said and done
in heaven and earth or so he would claim.
Though to most of us, I suppose, he appears
but little different from a common lunatic
fanatically obsessed by a delusion obvious
to everyone but himself I am yet perplexed
by this possessed man’s waste of energy
on such a lost cause in the modern world
defending his faith with a lawyer’s fluency
promoting it with a master salesman’s skill.
But when the drizzle begins my interest wanes
and growing bored with this vacuous oratory
I leave the preacher with his phantom Lord.
Later, my shopping done, I wend my way back
in the early evening through dreary puddles
along the wet streets to encounter him again
still holding forth oblivious to the elements
but now ignored by all as darkness falls
upon our godless town, spouting his dogmas
to the wind and rain like a man insane.
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