James is Gone

[vc_row][vc_column][title type="subtitle-h6"]Spencer McKinley[/title][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column width="11/12"][vc_column_text][audioplayer file="http://www.uwilluminationjournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/James_is_gone.mp3" titles="James is Gone by Spencer McKinley" artists="Spencer McKinley" track="James is Gone"]Don’t cry. Listen.Even the birds knowWhen to shut up. NotEven a crow sings today.Every choir boy should holdHis breath. Take his tongue if youNeed to. Get every Christian womanIn a room, kneeling down, head bowed.Silent. Praying. Not for James. But for themselves.I want them in Easter dresses bright enough to burn inThe hell they put him through. The hell they sent him to.Phone Ruben Mantz. Haley Prado. Elizabeth Robinson. TellThem James is gone. Then speak to your grandmother. Tell herYou know the truth you long suspected. James did not go with aFailing heart – the story her church, your church, his children’s choir’sChurch, fed the masses like manna. Tell her you know the truth. The diseaseHer lips refuse to mention tired of its own repression and finally took the restOf him. Instruct the children to burn their desks beneath the cross. Melt the podiumOn which he stood and pour it over the pulpit. Tear the books from the library shelvesAnd stack them in the narthex. Invite the town to shred every page. No words can saveHim now. He was lost before he left.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row]