Con-Men and Grifters
June 24 2008


We are all con-men and grifters
— with the curtains drawn
the porch-light burning
we keep our secrets.
And deceiving ourselves even more than others;
believing in love,
finding meaning in numbers,
and then hoping that ours
will never come up.

We admire the con-man,
even if we’d never admit it
— the quick-talking fixer,
the utter conviction,
the self-confident slickness
of the man.
And though he doesn’t leave pictures
— all evidence quietly spirited-away —
he is an artist of human nature
zeroing-in on our weakness like a shark
— blood in the water;
the fast swimmer
here and gone.

I want to believe the just are rewarded.
I want to believe in a merciful God.
And I want to believe the world will go on
like perpetual summer.
So when he thunders his sermon
like an old testament prophet
I, too, will shout “Amen”,
and bow my head to be blessed,
and tithe my 10 percent.