A Light Unto the Nation!

Cat Proctor

Cat Proctor

Honorable Mention | Age 13-17 category | Spring into Poetry Contest 2025 | San José Public Library

I: Scripture 
As you go about your day,  
Keep Him on your mind 
When sinners lead you astray, 
May you feel His watching eyes. 
 
He leads a perfect herd 
Walking in perfect lines 
So if you're tempted to turn and sway, 
Keep Him on your mind. 
 
As you cock the loaded gun, 
Remember for what we fight. 
This land, this way of life we won, 
The car and fence and wife, 
 
All rest on tradition, 
Rest on our holy kind, 
And when as His hand we strike the Enemy 
Keep Him on your mind. 
 
As you lay your head to rest 
Repent, repent, repent! 
Even if you tried your best, 
Your sorries must be sent  
 
For anyone who isn't shameful  
To true salvation must be blind— 
so tremble, sheep, ‘fore spangled altars 
And keep Him on your mind.  

II: Clergyman 
Trust in the lord with all your heart, 
he was muttering Proverbs like a madman. he was gripping tight to the cloth of the altar. The winter night was unforgivingly cold, and yet— 
Lean not in your own understanding; 
he was sweating through his collar. Snow started to catch on the lip of soldered stained glass and he was burning, like the flames of hell had begun to lick at his skin. Oh dear, he thought, he was inching closer already.  
in all your ways acknowledge Him 
The wage of sin is death, he told himself. Romans 6... 24? 25? he couldn't quite remember.  
and He will make your paths straight. 
he had strayed. he had been asking questions. Much too many questions. Father McKinsley always had said that devotion was done with the heart, not the head; said that those critical of the Lord would meet a cruller judgement than the most depraved sinner. 
Do not be wise in your own eyes 
he muttered the words and gulped. he thought he had done a good thing, offering the boy some bread. Father McKinsley had been watching through the cameras. God was watching too. God was watching him as he failed. he just didn't get it. The boy's smudged makeup had bothered him, but did the boy not deserve his charity? 
fear the Lord and shun evil. 
No! he was doing it again. The boy was without a job, betraying his country. The boy was without a woman, playing dress up, betraying the law. The boy was without devotion, betraying the Lord. he repeated the phrase once more. 
fear the Lord and shun evil. 
As his lips formed the words, the sweat from his brow dripped down and mingled with the tears in his eyes. he repeated it again, screaming. 
fear the Lord and shun evil! 
Again! 
fear the Lord and shun evil! 

III: Pariah 
Vile! You call me vile!  
How funny, Father, 
That you stoop to schoolyard insults— 
All over a little competition. 
Hm? You didn't know that's what this was? 
 
Of course I challenge you. 
I am a voice so clear you cut my microphone, 
An angel so ethereal you snip my wings. 
My faith is so unwavering,  
It'd drive you mad.  
You wouldn't know Faith if he kissed you on the lips! 
 
You fear me. 
Not because I blaspheme, 
But because my grace does not kneel. 
 
You want sanctity? 
My sacred tongue has braved pilgrimage 
Bringing divinity to spaces you know not of— 
It has slid between a set of pearly gates 
And studied man by humming hymns into his mouth 
The words of which your lips may never form. 
I have savored the Spirit in anothers spit 
Like sucking marrow from a hearty bone 
And have you really found salvation, Father, 
If you have never tasted it?  
 
 
 
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