Classic Poem

I have some ...
shall I say
unconventional views on religion.

I was touched by a Christian "anecdote",
for lack of a better thing to call it,
where, the story goes
that a man talks to god and
says (basically)

"throughout my life
I have been walking along a beach,
and I saw two sets of footprints,
yours and mine.

But in the worst times of my life
I only saw one set of footprints.

Why did you abandon me God ?"
And God replies
" At those times,
I had not abandoned you,
I was carrying you!

You see I never abandoned you,
I was always there for you."

That story always gets me right there.

***

But basically
I don't call myself a Christian.

I don't know if I believe in God,
but I believe that
there must be something after death.

I believe that the souls of good people
end up in some kind of eternity,

I would not exactly describe it as heaven,
in the Christian definition.

***

I believe that the Bible lays out
some very good ideals of how to live
and how people should
live by being "nice" to each other
and so on,

but ultimately,
I guess I just don't buy all of that
fire and brimstone stuff,
and miracles left, right and centre.

I even found out a
little bit about Buddhism,
and liked some of the
stuff I found out,
until I found out that they have,
shall we say,
very strict views on
sexually and
what is sexually "proper"
(for the lack of another word).

***

My sex life is
what I call normal,
if only slightly kinky.

I have a friend who I have an arrangement
to see when the want arises.
She is a prostitute and
one of my best friends.

She keeps telling me
that I am very special to her.

We are not exactly straight-laced
(neither of us),
but we know what we are doing and
we are both consenting adults and
that's really all that needs to be said.

***

In the past I have been
betrayed by people,
workmates,
who I once trusted -

all in the name of
playing a practical joke,
to humiliate and
embarrass me about my private life.

I don't like what they did to me,
but I don't despise them for it either.
(I don't have the time or
energy to hate people).

I think that their actions only go
to prove just how shallow
they really are.

I don't work with these
people any more
(because they have moved on to other jobs).