A view from under the pew: amos falls in a hole

Editor’s note: Amos is a churchmouse, who types by hopping on the computer

keyboard, but he can’t operate the capital shift keys, and he shuns punctuation marks – except dashes and hyphens.

amos falls in a hole

i don t know how it is

up there in the human

realm boss but here

in the church pew

underworld we little bugs

and gentle mice tend to

focus too much on the

problems and messes that

muck up our lives

but i suspect what god

really wants us to do

is just focus on him

and when we do

it gives us a whole

new perspective on

those bugaboos

not only is our perspective

on life changed boss but

our very lives are changed

instead of looking down we

begin to look up

instead of seeing ourselves

in a hole we begin to see

outside the hole

the reason i m saying all

this boss is because i fell

into a hole the other day and

couldn t get out

i clawed and i clawed

and i jumped and i jumped

and i flopped and i flopped

but to no avail

the hole was too deep so

i started to weep i just

knew i fell into hell

but then boss i heard

the shuffling of feet

praise the lord i shrieked

and bounced up and down

on my little gray feet

someone s coming to my

rescue i shouted - hey you -

hey you - until my toes

turned blue and my tongue

drooped too

a subjective caterpillar came

along and said - i feel for you

down there

an objective hoot owl came

along and said - it s logical

that someone would fall

into that hole

a christian scientist cat came

along and said - you only

think you re in a hole

a fundamentalist horned toad

came along and said - only bad

mice fall into holes

a calvinist bulldog came along

and said - you were predestined

for that hole

an arminian chameleon came

along and said - you weren t

predestined but you fell in

the hole anyway

a charismatic songbird came

along and said - just confess

that you aren t in the hole

the realist raven came along

and said - now that s a hole

the i r s dragonfly came along

to see if any taxes were owed

on the hole

the positive thinker-bug came along

and avoided the topic of the hole

altogether

a self-pitying woeworm

came and said - you haven t

seen anything until you ve

seen my hole

an optimist meadowlark came

along and said - that hole s

not so bad

a pessimist porcupine came

along and said - it s going to

get a lot worse in the hole

but jesus came along and pulled

me up out of the hole

in fact boss he wants to do that

for every one of us - if we ll just

keep our focus on him

amos