Images of the children
Yearning for Zion
But the children are not seen
only the white buses
proudly stenciled and labeled
as First Baptist buses.
White buses:
White for purity,
White for sanctity,
White for godliness,
White for holier-than-thou.
White for the truth.
We hold these truths to be self-evident
But what truths are self-evident?
All men are not created equal.
Those who set down the truths
did not consider women equal
nor men who differed from themselves.
Self-evident truth:
Murder is wrong.
Except government-sanctioned murder
Where the people who are killed
Are different from us
And of a different religion.
Self-evident truth:
Stealing is wrong.
Except government-sanctioned stealing
Where the children who are stolen
Are different from us
And of a different religion.
The children are held for ransom
Ransom for the beliefs of the mothers
And for their way of life.
Give up your ways
And believe as we do
And your children shall be returned.
The founding fathers who wrote the truths
Were many fathers for one country.
The stolen children were
Many children for each father.
Many mothers for each father,
Many mothers for each child.
It has been said
“It takes a village”
But not this village, no.
It should be the proper village
So that the children are not indoctrinated
But educated in only the proper truths.
Send to me your village of children
And I will educate them
With my own self-evident truths.
That men are not created equally,
That men are not equal,
That men are not created.
It has been said
“Judge not lest you be judged”
You condemn the parents
Yearning for Zion
For teaching the wrong truths
To their many children.
Children having children:
Texans look to yourselves.
Your own state publishes truths
Publishes them on the internet
And if we read it on the internet
It must be true.
In Texas it is written that
1 of every 16 seventeen-year-olds gets pregnant
1 of every 27 sixteen-year-olds gets pregnant
1 of every 58 fifteen-year-olds gets pregnant
1 of every 967 thirteen-year-olds gets pregnant
1 of every 5280 twelve-year-olds or younger gets pregnant.
Self-evident truth:
Teen pregnancy is wrong
Teen marriage is wrong
But my own grandmother was wed
To her Texan at 16
And gave birth while still a teen.
Self-evident truth:
Polygamy is wrong.
But as I age
And the many tasks grow harder
I can see the advantages
In taking a sister-wife.
Copyright © 2008 by Carolyn Cannon
