Chapter 9

yesterdays ago
long haired hippies on black and white TV
religious groupies squatting everywhere
tell your fortunes with a sharma dance
just drop a bit of change into the center of the tambourine
and watch them twirl like marionettes on the corners of
Mister Rogers make-believe neighborhood

winter shopping at the mall
a Nostradamus on every corner
Salvation Army Santas ring their bells like
Lionel Hampton
as grandpa use to tell me he did back in his day 
and I didn't know who to believe in
and I didn't really care
because my toys were under the tree every Christmas morning

if I were bold enough to ask
and I wasn't
told to just look it up in chapter 9
it's in there somewhere
look it up for yourself
chapter
not sure
but it's in there somewhere
a needle in a haystack of verses

the thing that will cure your ill
or save your soul from sin
the secret sauce to that Sunday afternoon dinner
that the preacher and his wife love
succumbing to the "itis"
prostrate on your living room couch
but resurrected in time to preach the 
seven o'clock service 
text
I don't remember now
the book
new testament
old testament
long lost in memories and travelled miles
but I do remember
the answer was embedded somewhere
in chapter 9