Billy Graham is Dead

I sit in my mother’s lap and she cries,

my father is enraged, my younger brother

promises he would never

ever treat a woman badly.

He would never try to

violate someone.

My family members were not evangelicals—

they were parishioners of a different kind, Baptists.

When I read the headline of the news

and it says Billy Graham is dead.

I don’t have the time to care.

He was old and he hated gay people. He made a lot

of money and anger. But

then, days later, I’m sitting

in the black leather chairs

of a police station, waiting,

a voice in my head says,

Billy Graham is dead.

Trauma is like a postmodern

novel, the plot is not linear—

you get lost in the dialogue,

the black chairs, the way the officer says,

can you please explain

to me what this means?

You say, it is a sexual thing

you would never participate in. He writes it all,

takes your name, your number.

Says, Honey, You did the right thing.

You say: Officer, did you know

that Billy Graham is dead?

When I was a child, sitting in a pew,

we sang about Abraham. He had many sons,

those sons had children too. Many men

did Father Abraham make.

I drive by a local Methodist church, it’s Sunday.

They’re all walking from their cars to the church.

It takes everything in me not to honk,

not to bash the horn of my wheel in. And scream.

In my dream I hit the man with my car,

he hits me first but I get away. I jump into my car

my mechanical mother’s lap and with the same rage

my father feels, I hit him with my car. Then it’s over—

they told me it would never would be, but when I hit him

it’s over. In his dreams, I am number one

on a list of things to have, to conquer.

I never get to hit him with a car and he never touches me.

Billy Graham saved some souls but damned a lot of others.

This is how I know that someone’s dream is always another’s nightmare.

 

 

Lydia A. Cyrus

Lydia A. Cyrus is a creative writer from Huntington, West Virginia. She has non-fiction work featured in several journals, including Luna Luna Magazine where she serves as a staff writer. Her poems can found in places like Quail Bell Magazine and Moonchild Mag. She is a proud Mountain Woman and loves her dog.

Written by 

Lydia A. Cyrus is a creative writer from Huntington, West Virginia. She has non-fiction work featured in several journals, including Luna Luna Magazine where she serves as a staff writer. Her poems can found in places like Quail Bell Magazine and Moonchild Mag. She is a proud Mountain Woman and loves her dog.

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