The Drummer

I’ve been reading the Bible
and praying off and on.
I quit going to church.
It was targeted toward
very young people,
muscled up he-man types
and subservient women.
The music was so loud that it bursted
Through my eighty-year-old deafness.
My body thumped from the excruciating
drum beat, not from the joy of the Lord.
The joy of the Lord resides in our
Peaceful retreat in the mountains.
So I read the word quietly
and March to a different drummer.

9-25