The By Joe Church

Down where the muddy By Joe flows

Around a slimy bend or two,

where great white birds float low over water 

beneath dark limbs which cross overhead 

and unseen things splash quietly away.  

An old church stands here like it always has.

It was made on the fifth day of creation. 

God made it Himself and He said it was good!

But now it’s just part of the old By Joe.

And the stained glass window 

is still on the wrong side of the church! 

It still lights up in the setting of the sun

and the goings down of the moon.

Once it was happy, squirming with joy all over the place,

People were screaming and stomping and shouting

“Hally Lullyia!”  There was music, loud and clanging,

tambourines and jellybeans!  And people were saved, 

and saved and saved again and again – 

All for the glory of God!

Oh, those were the days!  Yes!  

But now they are gone. 

The old steeple still rises out of the earth, 

and climbs up through the tops of the trees, 

and it’s crowned tonight by the grateful moon 

which sits there in glory, gilding the cross.

John Womack