Revelatory

She was well dressed alright. But when the wind blew- she still felt it. Like a reed, she was pushed and pulled according to God's will. She was being taught a lesson.

The sweetness of the angels had long avoided her. Even though she prayed at night and had her radio on, she still looked over her shoulder.

She was being hunted. He came to her sometimes, pretending to love her. The spikes in her back would go up as she tried to protect herself from him. He was trouble.

Religion was his pretext. "You need a man like me". She hated him for it. Like a grub that had burrowed under her skin she longed to dig him out. A parasite.

The sadness of the situation was sinking in. He had come to near where she had lived. She had paid him to do some work for her. He had done it. He had even driven her to a church and they had sat through the service. However things were changing

It had become racial. It always had been. He had used the n-word on her and she had frozen. Like being hit by a boulder, she could not believe in the power of that word to destroy. From then on, she had lost all feelings for him and detested him. They were enemies now.

How can you hide from the history? The facts were there. The human condition- blisteringly brutal in all its form. If it didn't kill you with obviousness, it got you with gentleness. One slip up and naked aggression came to the fore.

The tramp lady had said thank you today when her cup was taken in. She usually had an attitude. Where had it gone? Maybe she felt like she had the upper hand, but she had been humble.

'People' we mumble to themselves. Some think slavery is over but it is still her. We may dress better and eat better and look better but the chains to our souls are still not free. We are wedded to the earth in some sort of unholy matrimony which takes the heart and soul out of us- persistently.

Consistently, we try to promote patterns that bring us happiness, but in the end we only find more problems and dig a deeper ditch.

She sighed as if resigned to her fate. What could she do accept take her medication and dull her nerves to the truth. The painful, corrosive truth.