Death Warmed Over

These poems, in the order they were written, are deeply Mormon, as are all of R. A. Christmas's writings. The subjects are various-aging, marriage, divorce, Utah history, international affairs, basketball, even song lyrics are thrown in (Christmas is a songwriter as well). But there are two major threads: The loss of his high-school girl-friend who loved Christmas into the Mormon Church, and who he was too immature and lacking in courage to marry; but who continued to love him through their subsequent marriages; and secondly, his obsession with, and sympathy for "Dog" (God), who in Mormon terms has to deal not only with the problems his "pups" on earth create, but also with his mate and family in Heaven, as well as "Bad Pup" (Satan). This second thread climaxes in the poem "The Conference Talk," in which Joseph Smith, the Mormon prophet, tells Christmas (and all Mormons) that his job is to imitate Christ's sacrifice and become, in time and eternity, a God himself ; and the first thread comes together in the poem "At a Grave," (the girl's), where Christmas concludes that it's now best "to forget her." But both solutions are problematic. Death can't be "warmed over" completely.