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Good Baptist Boy


Down at the hospital you’re

not supposed to swear.

I mean, they don’t just disapprove;

they motha-freakin’ flip.


But a person I love is

dying here, I say.

Doesn’t matter, they say;

swearing upsets the others

who probably have people dying here also;


If you absolutely

have to swear, they say,

you can go out into the

streets, behind the hospital,

and swear there among the

others who are not swearing in here;


though it wouldn’t surprise us,

they say, if you died out there,

what with all your swearing and all.




Michael Van Dyke

levelheaded: Good Baptist Boy


Michael Van Dyke’s “Good Baptist Boy” is a straightforward narrative about getting scolded for using foul language in a hospital. Beneath that narrative, however, the author ruminates about religion, death and—more subtly—about meaning in life and language.


The story itself, while direct, is textured. The lines “I mean, they don’t just disapprove; / they motha freakin’ flip” are undeniably funny. They also call into question why a bad word here and there is cause for such a strong reaction. More interestingly, these seemingly simple lines open themselves to further interpretation. The colloquialism, “I mean,” suggests that evil is at the core of the self (I: mean). These two words also communicate that the speaker intends to impress meaning upon the world. The reaction to either scenario isn’t simple disapproval. Instead, people “flip.”  Perhaps this flipping is embodied in a strict moral stance, in a theology. Perhaps the author is pointing out that supplying a specific meaning (ie. all things happen for a reason) to a specific situation (ie. a loved one’s death) invites an opposite interpretation (ie. nothing happens for a reason).


When we look closely at Van Dyke’s stylistic decision to incorporate common phrases at other times, this theme of “meaning” becomes even more apparent. Take the lines “But a person I love is / dying here, I say. / Doesn’t matter, they say.” The second of these three lines suggests that speech, and the act of writing, have some value—even in the face of death. This glimmer of hope is quickly flipped in the next line. In the grim context of the narrative, the fact that someone loved is dying, and the fact that the speaker has something to say, “doesn’t matter.” And, scientifically speaking, speaking doesn’t amount to much “matter.”


Other instances in the poem demand that we consider specific words and their multiple definitions. The word “swear,” in addition to meaning the use of foul language, also means promise. Interestingly, the smart line breaks, as well as the syntax employed in the line “have to swear, they say” invite a more complex reading. On its own, this line is instructive: possess to promise; or, alternatively, have a reason for living that makes cursing necessary.


Clearly there’s no one way to read Van Dyke’s poem. As his poem suggests, attempts to explain anything typically fall short. If nothing else, the speaker in “Good Baptist Boy” calls the commonplace into question. What is to be “good,” or “Baptist”? To be a “boy” within the context of a poem bearing no gender-exclusive pronouns? Van Dyke doesn’t seem to have the answer. In the final line—“what with all your swearing and all”—he points out that uncertainty is embedded in everything. This single line tells us that “what” (a question) is found in “all.”



– The Editors