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Carolynn Kingyens is the author of two poetry collections, Before the Big Bang Makes a Sound and the newly released Coupling (November 2021), both by Kelsay Books. In addition to poetry, Kingyens writes published essays, book and film reviews, micro fiction and short stories. She lives in New York and Canada with her husband and their two beautiful, kind, and very creative daughters. Here’s a link to Coupling on Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Coupling-Carolynn-Kingyens/dp/1639800549/ref=sr_1_6?keywords=coupling&qid=1637736908&s=books&sr=1-6

Vacation Bible School

Carolynn Kingyens

We sang songs
in Vacation Bible School
about how Jesus
loved the little children
of the world:
Red and yellow,
black and white
they are precious
in His sight,
the song goes.

And we sang songs
about Father Abraham,
and his many sons,
marching around the room
in perfect unison:
all of us, soldiers for Christ.

We drank Jim Jones-colored
punch and ate no-frills
butter cookies;

finger painted Noah
and his rescued animals:
elephants, giraffes,
their heads, two at a time,
sticking out round holes —
windows we created
on paper
in the brown-colored ark.

We painted a bluish-green
flood with bloated bodies
sprinkled into swirls
of aquamarine.

For added drama,
Paul Simmons drew a hand

reaching out
from under water
like Peter did to Jesus
when he started sinking
due to lack of faith.

Years later, Timmy Ainsley
would shoot himself

in the mouth
after he came out
to his parents
about his love

for Paul Simmons.

There was a rumor
some blood

and brain tissue
landed on Timmy’s
Top Gun
poster,
the one where Tom Cruise
mugs beside a motorcycle.

And I heard little Regina
Hopely, Bethel’s Christmas
Pageant Mary,
became a meth addict;
covered in sores
and begging, like Lazarus,
on the cold streets
of Fishtown.

— Carolynn Kingyens