God and Nature Fall 2021

By Eugene E. Lemcio
Friday
The unusually warm summer caused
autumn to arrive early throughout Tumwater Canyon.
Its flora and fauna seemed to be engaged
in a mad dash towards some nearer finish line.
Along the Wenatchee River's shallows,
three two-foot salmon-
flanks turning crimson as if in competition
with the vine maple-
whipped the gravel with flashing tails
to prepare nests "where they may lay their young."
Saturday
This year's annual Fishermen's Terminal Festival
fell at its Centennial—although there was the usual fare
of hands-on marine crafts for kids,
a ship-shaped bouncy house,
booths featuring samples of Pacific Northwest cuisine,
(but minus the Kettle Korn girl),
a chorus of old guys singing sea shanties,
a Lutefisk Eating Contest,
the high-energy Taiko Drum concert,
and a reptile show.
The program's star, a copper-shelled tortoise
of enormous girth,
paid its minder no mind.
Nor was the creature about to be lured
by bagged greens approved by the beast's dietician-
although its beak did make a few stabs at fresh blades
of grass growing between creosoted planks of the pier.
Maybe this recipient of digital blessings
(by touch and tug, by photo and video)
was just being
curious.
Sunday
Deacon Mary gave her report
about the Blessing of Animals-
parishioners' pets, actually-
an event attended mainly by
a few excited dogs of uncertain pedigree
and twin Siamese cats who were
deeply, deeply
offended.
Eugene Lemcio, Emeritus Professor of New Testament at Seattle Pacific University, taught there for thirty-six years. He earned an M.Div. from Asbury Theological Seminary and a doctorate from Cambridge University (Trinity College). Gene began his academic career at Houghton College with a B.S. in zoology (and a minor in chemistry).
Friday
The unusually warm summer caused
autumn to arrive early throughout Tumwater Canyon.
Its flora and fauna seemed to be engaged
in a mad dash towards some nearer finish line.
Along the Wenatchee River's shallows,
three two-foot salmon-
flanks turning crimson as if in competition
with the vine maple-
whipped the gravel with flashing tails
to prepare nests "where they may lay their young."
Saturday
This year's annual Fishermen's Terminal Festival
fell at its Centennial—although there was the usual fare
of hands-on marine crafts for kids,
a ship-shaped bouncy house,
booths featuring samples of Pacific Northwest cuisine,
(but minus the Kettle Korn girl),
a chorus of old guys singing sea shanties,
a Lutefisk Eating Contest,
the high-energy Taiko Drum concert,
and a reptile show.
The program's star, a copper-shelled tortoise
of enormous girth,
paid its minder no mind.
Nor was the creature about to be lured
by bagged greens approved by the beast's dietician-
although its beak did make a few stabs at fresh blades
of grass growing between creosoted planks of the pier.
Maybe this recipient of digital blessings
(by touch and tug, by photo and video)
was just being
curious.
Sunday
Deacon Mary gave her report
about the Blessing of Animals-
parishioners' pets, actually-
an event attended mainly by
a few excited dogs of uncertain pedigree
and twin Siamese cats who were
deeply, deeply
offended.
Eugene Lemcio, Emeritus Professor of New Testament at Seattle Pacific University, taught there for thirty-six years. He earned an M.Div. from Asbury Theological Seminary and a doctorate from Cambridge University (Trinity College). Gene began his academic career at Houghton College with a B.S. in zoology (and a minor in chemistry).