s used to describe the fear he had as a child in the reign of the Holy Trinity as the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. The last stanza of the poem repeats that he "waited all day for Christ to climb down / Like a playground bully, the cuts and mice / Upon his face agleam, and pound me / Till me irreligious tongue hung out" (16-19). The poet seems to believe that Christ is obligated to punish him for his irreverence. He compares his faith in Christ to that of a playground bully, as he believed that his religion as a child was not by choice, but by force. The last two lines, "But of course He never came, knowing that / I was grown up and ready for Him now" (20-21), indicate that the Christ of his childhood religion did not come, but now as an adult he has lost his boyhood religion and has found faith in Christ. This poem could reasonably be entitled “The day Zimmer Lost Religion and Found Christ.” Zimmer believed in God and Christ; it was the bureaucracy of religion that he did not believe or accept. ...
