A Jesus Thing

Yesterday at the Cowboy Church

Or the Jesus Church for Cowboys

The Cowboy Church for Jesus

That was it

Though why can’t Jesus be

For Cowboys

When the very nice lady was writing me a check

And asked the date

Which I knew because it was

Tax weekend

And her husband the pastor

Offered that it was the 16th

I tried to be interesting

But not controversial

By bringing up Lincoln

A safe president

That he started the income tax

Intending lamely to add the humor

Because it was April

The month when he died

That we hung tax day

Around his poor neck

His traitorous death commingled

Forever

Our little pain with his big

But she had turned serious

At the mention of taxes

Quite concerned

Standing there in front of the

American Flag

And he spoke up that it was really

Woodrow Wilson the democrat

Not Lincoln the republican

Who really got the whole thing

Going that way

And so to back out of that minefield

That sectarian jungle

As she was finishing the check

I said that I sure wouldn’t know

How to think up a government

Where everyone wouldn’t just kill each other

When he looked me in the eye

All comprehending

Omniscient even

“It was a Jesus thing”

So simple

Which I later justified

Driving home

As a fine description

Like when you go too fast

Around a corner

And the car almost flips over

It’s a Jesus thing

A little too much Jesus

Excessive Jesus in my turn

Made me almost flip the car