__________________________________"Christian living should be our
__________________________________steering wheel not our spare tire"
__________________________________(a quote from a highway sign somewhere in the Midwest)
Wisdom of a million--dollar charismatic,
a Midnight Superstar chosen by God.
Although some doubting Thomas may question
which of God's messengers actually said it.
There are, after all, "Six great men of God
who had their beginnings under a tent,"
according to one clairvoyant radio preacher
with tongue stirring the honey jar.
Could such spiritual intuition have originated
beneath the canvas--perhaps a Ringling Brother tent--
a special message to tend the youthful buds chosen
for early morning submersion and conversion?
Neither inner light nor commanding voice has yet
to reveal which of the six great men it might have been:
The black--booted lion tamer armed with a whip
to lash the devil into submission?
Or maybe the potato--head clown with putty face
trained to bend with the prevailing wind?
Perhaps the trapeze man with blood of ice, adept
at balancing on tightropes while others plunge into sin?
Only the fallen would claim loyal Ringling bothers
and sisters capable of this holy insight.
Maybe there was a seventh great man of God,
begot not under the Big Top, but in the back
of the Brothers' bus. A passionate young man
who rejected his father's profession and fled the tent.
A frog--throated, rafter-shaking rock and roller who
boogied his way up the FM dial for his moment in the sun.
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