The Allograph

The allograph caught my attention above the doorway: O’COME LET VS WORSHIP. Something swept me through the doorway. It was as if I had to. Return to an area some will say is better off dead. Many have not lived through a shock and awe campaign let alone development through tragedy and personal pain. They are stalled on the road and have not met the man who has wept for their down falls. During the draft, they flip out and land back inside the tank from where they were first called out.

The rain falls heavy for a time like the clasps of the tambourine. When it’s clear a routine roof leak inspection discovers lead bullets like acorns lying in the valleys of the Spanish Colonial roof tiles. The brass shells have bounced somewhere else on the eve of the New Year’s celebration. Bass explosions fire off in rapid succession like trap track rudiments.

Churches in the West Adams neighborhood are not usually the subjects of a casing. You’ve got to get to know people to discern the ones who are posing. Designers and developers have their erasers waiting. The cheese will be aged and then follows the wine tasting. Grapes had to be historically crushed to yield such a sweetness and depth of flavor. Original notes often replicated, but amounts to featherweights in any cultural compensation. The bodily attitude has changed since Luther’s hammer beat into a nail hanging the ninety-five theses like street art.

Enter Pose, a statue like stature inside the sanctuary; a stalwart in the community. Morning beams of the light clean through the stain glass to clearly see the living sacrifices stand out. Regardless of your pose it’s see through. His white Polo pops like a fill flash wrapping around his stance. The aura of the Almighty is ‘round the mind of Christ. Along the edge the stripes of purity and valor decorate the new creation with a ripe righteousness. Ever advancing, the Last Adam is the focus of the allograph.

At 19, Pose did not want to be either of the two most prevalent career options for blacks in Texarkana: teacher or preacher. The army transported him to Okinawa Island in Japan for service tour as military police. Fast fwd through being married for 53 years and retiring from the United States Post Office he was concerned for his soul. You can only run in the streets for so long before it wears you down. He read his bible through the years, but he desired more understanding.

Pose enrolled at Bethany Christian Bible College. The first course called, The Short Life of Christ had placed Pose in a remarkable state. Fifteen other students waned around him. The message of the forgiveness of sins through Christ by grace filled him with an excitement rooted in the divine truth. His eyes were lit and he continues to this day in a Lutheran deacon-training program. Now the Lord is using a new version of Pose to do two things he didn’t want to at first: teaching and preaching. The word deacon means runner and servant. He’s running and serving in the streets to spread the word of God.

We Shall Overcome even though many souls have escaped as quickly as the burning leaves of tobacco smoke. It’ll all change below the ten by how much will be spent and put out for good.

The ‘Shaw and Jefferson, where these brutal boulevards have impact like crispy donuts of joyride—completely glazed over is another territory where the question remains: Need Hope? The Texas-sized hugs will keep you going until the next one.

The invitation above the doorway gives us two directives. The first is to come. It’s what the Last Adam asks us to do. The second is to worship. The seeming misspelling leads me to believe in the worship there’s a choice to either worship the world, or worship the author and finisher of our faith.

Through turbulent times these living stalwarts have taken a stand by the authority given to Jesus in heaven and earth. Surely, he is with them to the very end of the age. O’COME LET VS WORSHIP as everything we have known is up for grabs in Los Angeles, California.

Who is holding onto you?