Sydney Lea: Heterodox

And which of you by being anxious can add

one cubit to his span of life?

                             Matthew 6:27

.


A and B would scarcely remember

When the two weren’t friends     A knows of B

That after grim chemo his hair came back

The doctors reckoned they’d licked his disease


B’s tall     A is sufficiently shorter

He never till lately noticed B’s round

Of pattern baldness      Yes his hair is back

And out of sight A kneels on the ground


The cancer’s back too    God if you’re there

Thinks A    If you can truly do wonders

Let B grow into a natural baldness

A knows his is no conventional prayer


And conventionally worries it’s wrong to kneel

And beg with his being’s every morsel

That B will be thus strangely blessed

Real baldness all of a sudden that crucial

Copyright 2022 Sydney Lea

Sydney Lea’s many honors include the 2021 Vermont Governor’s Award for Excellence in the Arts.