False Reflections 

I wanted to be an obedient son
But I was the more earthly one.
I know now it was attention
I was seeking not the silver

Dimes I would steal to buy
Grape sodas from the machine
At the corner gas station; she
Caught me red-handed once

Putting silver dime into slot to
Get second cold bottle of pop.
She took both of them from me
But she never asked me why

I took without asking there were
No talks on the sin of stealing of
Which I had just been found guilty
No warning having broken laws,

But then I was just like the man that
Deceived her, made in my father’s image
And fashioned from the same clay which
Bound him. Enslaved bodies of flesh

Both guilty of sin and condemned to
Die. Without hope and totally alone
She watched our struggle. Seventeen
Years of crawling when I should have ran.

Crutches aided my walk until I grew strong
Enough to see His image reflected back
At me in the mirror, and not my father’s…
I’m walking now but the journey is difficult.

© Nathan A. Baker