“Church Camp, Summer 1977” by Ed Madden

Ed Madden

CHURCH CAMP, SUMMER 1977

Three boys on the upper bunks
spend an afternoon looking

for dirty stuff in the Bible,
find the newer versions better

than the old. They almost look
like scholars, poring over books,

parsing words like concupiscence.

from Rattle #39, Spring 2013
Tribute to Southern Poets

__________

Ed Madden (Arkansas & South Carolina): “When I was growing up, I learned in my church that we were a people of the book. In biology, I learned there were names for things—and so many things I needed to know. A mammal skull from a field behind the house could become a project on taxonomy and teeth. A story my father told about a trot-line in the river and a gar on the line was only one way to know the world: learning the names for things was another.” (web)

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