Barbara Hamby on "plain-speak versions"

I ran across these lines today from Barbara Hamby’s poem “Ode to American English” in Garrison Keillor, Ed., Good Poems for Hard Times (132-133):

            the battle cry of the Bible Belt, but no one uses

the King James anymore, only the plain-speak versions,

            in which Jesus, raising Lazarus from the dead, says,

“Dude, wake up,” and the L-man bolts up like a B-movie

            mummy. “Whoa, I was toasted.” Yes, ma’am,

JTR