Political Emperors

The politician rides along,
braided for full court,
waving to left or waving to right
but not to the regular sort.

Children stand beside the road,
giggling into their hands,
“It’s a naked man sits on that horse
and doesn’t he think he’s grand!”

-Joy Stalvey Barefoot

Adam and Eve and Me and Why?

Am I to fathom, or desire to change,
the course this earthly flesh has traced?
Was I carried in the loins of Adam;
incubated in the Eves of the ages?

Was I conceived with the spirit of God;
orphaned, and sent off to earthly beings;
set on a tightly-sealed mystery course;
my soul, encased in in a body that’s breathing

It’s the kind of thing that will blow your mind;
In the middle of the night when you’re lying in bed
thinking of the earthly journey you’re had;
wondering how many earthlings were bred.

-Joy S. Barefoot

Mississippi Dirt Devils*

An innocent dirt devil
spins down the road;
reminiscent
of a more demonic
spinning
wind,
riding
on dark
thunderous
clouds;
a wind, like a giant finger,
tapping
out
devastation;
a bit here,
a bit there,
with
not a shred
of thought
given
to who your parents were,
but in the end,
it seems
that who your parents were
should not make a difference
to a dark spinning wind.

-Joy S. Barefoot, 2002

*a small “whirlwind” commonly seen in Mississippi
and the Midwest. It is similar to a tiny tornado.