Sunlight streams in this morning
Through the hole in my siding
That was packed with a green Hanes
T-shirt which I laundered but which
Retains numerous splotches of black
Paint it’s really in better shape than
Many I wear the underarm holes not
Quite as large as those on the shirt
I received after a youth mission trip
In Appalachia Pendleton County
West Virginia to be precise if
Narrowing it down to the county
Is anything like precision we built
A handicapped ramp for a senior
So he could actually leave his house
Without having three guys carry his
Wheelchair over rough ground that
Lay between his porch and his parking
Space the only level area between
His house and the road painted
A small church and by small I mean
Eighty believers would pack it and
It only required low ladders to get to
The eaves neither was killer work
Cracking the boulders in the postholes
Would have been killer work had it
Not become Macho Demo time for
The boys how sexist the girls
Broke some too we did camp things
Slept sexually segregated in the large
Cabin the Habitat community used as
Headquarters ate breakfast and supper
There and sandwiches in the field
Found a small stream to cool off in
If you could lie down amidst the rocks
Sang religious camp songs the pastor
Brought his guitar talked made friends
With the other church volunteering
I prayed that the kids would get the
Idea that really doing some work for
People you didn’t know people whom
You would never have met and people
Whose lives were so much different from
Yours was something like what Jesus meant
When he judged the nations
Even as you have done for one of these
The least of my family and some notion
That the sermon on the mount was
Really spoken to them adolescents
With their brains still forming
Get a lesson from Dewey they
Get their knuckles scuffed and their
Fingers dirty with paint but
It’s at camp that they do love
To the least
Whom they do not know
c. J.S.Manista, 2015
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