Souls would be saved,
and little girls re-born as angels,
that’s what they taught her in Sunday School
when they’d sung ‘In The Sweet Bye and Bye’.
She loved the tune, the melody
and sang a snatch to her father.
“That’s pie in the sky,” her father laughed.
He sang the same tune to her
but with different words.
“Joe Hill wrote these” her father said
and she liked those words better
she was a child of life after all
and didn’t want to wait for death to eat her pie.
So she learned them all and sang them on the next Sunday.
That was the last time she went to Sunday School.
She was a bad influence, they had said.
Her father laughed when she told him.
She sighed and looked up at the sky.
She knew there was no pie there,
only on earth for the lucky ones.
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Pie In The Sky
by Lynn White
Lynn White lives in north Wales. Her work is influenced by issues of social justice and events, places and people she has known or imagined. She is especially interested in exploring the boundaries of dream, fantasy and reality. She was shortlisted in the Theatre Cloud 'War Poetry for Today' competition and has been nominated for a Pushcart Prize, Best of the Net and a Rhysling Award.
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