Stan’s Corner, Sunday, December 11, 2011

This is a long poem but well worth your reading.  It is called “I can’t Marry Her Now” by J. Frank Bartleson.

“We had planned for so long a time.

She was so young and lovely,

But now she is with child,

And it is not mine!

I asked, “Whose is it?”

She answered, “It is God’s.”

Of course all men are the children of God.

But she would only reply, “It is of God.”

I am a man of standing in this community.

What will they say if I marry her?

They will know it is not mine.

They will laugh me to scorn.

I will send her to my cousin’s.

She can have it there and when it is over

We can be married in dignity.

She went.  She came back, saying

“It is of God, and I will have it here.”

They are so cruel, like wolves.

They will stone her.

I cannot do this to one so young,

To one so young, so lovely, so helpless.

I, too, will believe it is of God.

I will take her to the land of my fathers.

And raise him as if he were really my own.

He shall never know he is not mine.

“And Jesus grew in wisdom, and in strength,

And in favor with God and man.”

And when as a man, he described God.

He said, “God is like a father.”

J. Frank Bartleson