Saturday Morning Missionaries

they move in
on a Saturday
morning before noon
with their pamphlets
and bible ready
to dispense lessons
in guilt doubt
futility and death
all in one blow
as I reel
from each punch
to the soft
spot in back
of my soul
while they prattle
on in their
confident and commanding
manner rattling off
arcane questions Reinhart
Niebuhr couldn’t answer
attempting to entrap
and ensnare me
in a knot
of fear at
my weakest moment
with the question:
“If God is good
why is there
evil in the world”?
to which I reply
“To thicken the plot”