Seeds Sewn on the Sabbath
Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old,
he will not depart from it. Proverbs 22:6
On Sabbath we would play a special game,
Monopoly. The streets were mission fields,
The houses were the clinics, and the name
We gave hotels was “hospitals.” These shields
Were green and red, hypocrisies we knew
Were little falsehoods covering up the fact
That we were breaking holy hours. We grew
From white lie boys to men, and how those act
Is false as toy money on the board.
They still persuade themselves by priestly tricks
Of mind that they aren’t bad guys. God ignored
Our kid casuistries—tending to fix
The pattern of a life, so that when we
Grow up, we cloak bare sin with sophistry.