Duck and Cover, The Spirit is Descending

by C.P. Varnum

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Picture by Jeff Noble

January 27, 2012

I looked forward to those mornings when 

My mother, perched at the top of the stairs, would scream 

Jehovah’s! Get Down! 

Born too late  

for the Cold war, 

it was the closest I’d ever  

get to replicating “duck and cover.” 

My child wasn’t old enough to play the  

Cold war game, so I always opened the door. 

Monica and Pernice and I sipped coffee. 

I got Splenda packets the day before,  

Pernice doesn’t take sugar. 

Every Wednesday we three had our little 

Bible study. We would eat scones and sip coffee and we’d 

talk about God and what a good friend he is,  

such a good friend we don’t have to just call him God, 

we can call him by his first name.  

I once belonged to a Pentecostal Church. 

Saturday nights I would actually pray.  

My head tilted in reverence, hands clasped  

tight, I would ask that someone speak in tongues, 

reassuring God it shouldn’t be me.