Boys in the Balcony

They were fighter planes
the size of bubble gum wrappers

We weren’t supposed to chew gum in church
might make us cough and start a chain reaction
might fall out in the offering plate

What if it popped during “hallowed be…”
would that make God angry…

“God,” whose name I could trace with my finger
in the wavy grain of the oak
my mother sat upon so properly
my father so uprightly

Except when a brave B12
one engine out
tumbled from the balcony for a crash landing in
Mrs. Parker’s auburn wig

The pilot nearly died in that fire

This poem received honorable mention in the 2007 Utmost Christian Writers novice poetry contest: www.utmostchristianwriters.com/gallery/gallery329.php