*culture is not optional

counted in heaven

by Ryan Vande Kraats

The road stretched around,
the young men sat waiting for you
with insults on their tongues,
"Go on up, Bald Head," they called
and you were offended

so you called down upon them a curse,
and there was movement in the bushes behind them.

(But not a hair shall fall
from my head, nor any
sparrow from a tree that is not known to Him)

and two bears roared your brutal rebuttal as
forty-two were mauled and slain and

fell dead upon the road which
you took up to Samaria and over
to Mount Carmel to speak
the word of the Lord.

And God knows your thinning hair–each one was
counted in heaven. And God knew each one that fell.