About the Missionaries

When they came to this meadow
we watched from our doorways.
They brought sticks and balls,
shouts and running, so that
mice ran into their holes,
cicadas hid under thistles.

They wore
colored creatures on their hands
making them speak
to our children,
telling them
that our songs and prayers
are the wrong
songs and prayers.
They seem to think that God
has only one kind
of songs and prayers.
How lonely it must be
to know so few.

English 222 1 January 1977 English 224