And the Greatest of These Is Love

Doug Anderson

I saw the Pentecostals when the spirit struck them

get out of their van and rush

to the downed power line as it popped and sparked,

snake-whipping back and forth

on the road between two lines of cop-stopped cars,

yes, unheeding（不理会的） they got out and danced

with the blue tongue of it

in spite of the shouts and gasps

and how they jigged harder when it bit them

and what was almost funny but not quite

was how they jerked around

all angles and elbows and cut puppet strings,

their faces white-hot and God-boggled.

How clumsy we are in love,

can only dance with it a short while

before it forks toward farce or flight

and how magnificent to let go so it may drift

close to the water like seagull touching down and lifting up