June 2012
Poetry
Brother Grace
by Elvis Alves
His name was Brother Graves
from Barbados
We kids called him Brother Grace
unaware of the theological meaning
of our mistake
We liked Grace instead of
Graves because we heard the
former said quite often in
church
Plus Graves and Grace sounded
so similar, especially when
spoken fast by kids our age
Truth be told, we associated Graves with
death and therefore were scared to say it
aloud
Brother Graves stood at
the door of the church every
Sunday morning
He was the usher and would
greet us with a smile or high five
as we arrive to service with
our parents
Brother Graves was not short
or tall
Not skinny or fat
And he was the only man in the
church whose hair was styled jerry curls
Brother Graves also bleached his face
so that it was much lighter than his dark
neck and other dark parts of his body
We boys admired Brother Graves
because he was a ladies’ man
We caught him with Sister Jones
one Sunday in the basement of the
church
They were doing more than passing
the peace with a kiss
We suspected that it was a
scorned Sister Jones who
reported to the pastor that Brother
Graves lived at home with a woman who
did not wear his ring
The pastor preached about St. Paul
advising marriage less a man burns
with the passions of the flesh
There was also the admonition against
being unequally yoked
Angry, Brother Graves got up and
walked out the church, taking Grace
with him
The latter must have been the case
because Grace was absent from the sermon
preached by the pastor all because Brother
Graves loved a woman and scorned
another