Once upon a time in a shady woodland,
a young boy had prayed,
& had been told a happily ever after—
that we could be with our families forever.

The ideal marriage had always been promoted
as one man & one woman,
for even at the dawn of time,
but one wife had been created for Adam.

We solved not the problems of the world,
but tried to solve problems that hadn’t been problems before,
save through the prism of Mormonism.

The idea of sexual relations in Heaven,
of childbirth, & eternal progression,
made an earth of heaven, a heaven of earth.

Heaven wasn’t a state of mind or being
but on a planet far removed from ours.
God hadn’t always been,
but had been as we were now.

Logline for Because of Mindy Wiley:  An Irish-Catholic girl coming of age in the Deep South during the New Millennium finds her family splintered when two Mormon missionaries come to her door, their presence and promise unearthing long-buried family secrets, which lead to her excommunication and exile.