Soap Man

                                                                             Sandy Dickson

                 A preacher and a soap manufacturer
                 Were walking and conversing as they walked.

                  The soap king said, “What good is religion?
                  It’s been centuries of nothing but talk.”

               “Still, the world grows continually worse.
                 So it hasn’t done anything really.
                 Thousands of years of preaching truth and
                     light,
                And there’s still dishonesty and misery.”

              “Where is goodness among such travesties?
                It seems to me religion has failed,
                When there continues to be the trouble
                Evident by suffering that’s prevailed.”
 
               As they strolled, they reached a street with children
               Who played along the side of the dirt road.
               The preacher said, “Look at that little boy—
               The one who is carrying that big load.”

              They appeared to be constructing a fort,
              And he was gleefully transporting sticks.
            “He’s the dirtiest boy I’ve ever seen,
              He may as well have been carrying bricks…”

           “Which were laden with dirt, mortar and sand,
             It sure shows soap doesn’t do any good.
             It’s been in the world for thousands of years
            And it’s not doing the job that it should.”

          “That’s not fair,” defended the soap maker,
           Who was beginning to get out of joint.
          “It’s been here, but it has to be used to work.”
           Said the minister, “Exactly my point.”