Contributor: Perry Gardbakken

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Bringing babies into being by the bunches
my Mormon cousins keep white skin in circulation
but we don't talk about that
just like we don't talk about the "Mark of Cain"
or the lack of lay-pastors
of colors deeper than Grecian

Leniency toward Leviticus
is always a popular option
except when it comes to acceptance
of all the gay cousins
massacred by black guns
in angry white hands.

In truth,
I've seen all I need to see
in the casinos that crowd against the Utah border
but my cousins keep on calling
saying "jack" this and "daniels" that
while I share my drinks with sinners
on a Saturday evening
knowing I won't be waking
to meet the "needs" of the ward
I've been assigned to.


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Perry saw twenty winters before he left the mountains. He writes in nature, sometimes while sitting in trees.