She said it only that one time but
forcefully,
pushing it home into us; the words
were sheets of metal slammed together
and pounded unto melding —
said it allegedly within earshot, not to
our faces, our bewildered faces;
said it in response to our yawning,
our whining about doing it —
we never went to church so why was it
suddenly so important this time? She erupted
with it. She said we were growing up
lawless and Godless, and
then she stormed out to the car and
was gone.

We stood there for hours — maybe;
it seemed like a long time but
was likely only ten minutes or so and then
she came home and we went about the day
with her angry, sullen as a dark church;
the two of us, just kids;
bewildered, uninvited,
ragged and confused infidels outside;

no one addressing the words
or the issue or anything at all except
eating the meat on our plates and
drinking the milk from our glasses.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
onward,
T