Highly commended
Brian Docherty, Crouch End, London

Crime of Passion

they will pick up serpents, and if they drink
any deadly thing, it will not hurt them: (Mark 16, vs 18)

Pastor Frank's wife has heard this so often
it has worn smooth as the snakes he uses
in his act every night. That is her thought on it -
an act - for the benefit of his audience, or him.

She is the welcome sister to those that turn
away temptation, come twice on Sundays
to the tin-roofed hut out in the woods
where the Word of the Lord is strong.

She made him build a box to hold the timber
rattlers & other snakes he catches a night,
and put the drinking poison on the highest shelf.
she is not ready to be tested just yet.

She has seen miraculous recoveries from bites
& poisonings, but is feeling his enthusiasm
too strenuous, mislikes his attitude to funerals,
does not believe they were all backsliders,

She wants the head of her home to be home,
say Grace over her table, not some Deacon's
as guest preacher. She wants the plain word, nothing else,
hankers after the Baptist church on Main St.

She minds Paul on womens' position in Church,
how this squares with the First Amendment.
Her conscience is her own, not his property.
She has woodcraft too, will put this to Sunday dinner.