I’ve seen God in a ripped sky
bleeding over a volcano’s crown
I’ve seen God in your hands
I’ve seen God in your mouth
in cool water
that gave a shiver to my back
the eel that opened his jaw
20 feet below
my legs
as I kicked
toward that crust
of surface
I’ve seen God in a child
who demanded bubble gum
and waved the oxen
back to their water
dutiful hooves
tiny hand
with command in her mitt
soccer ball kicked
through a busted palace
as bodies burned
on a riverbank
where women wash
their fruit
their skin
their young
I’ve seen God
between the firewood
hot lights that scorched
a body flammable
with purpose
a dusty floor
of hundred year old wood
a creature
broken free
by a dead man’s words
I’ve seen God on the lake
you spoke of
and never saw with my eyes
a fable
some dreams are more gratifying
than what physics will find.
listen
I hear the water lapping
at your feet
sun kissed
I can go there any time
I’ve seen God on a preacher’s tongue
a beggar’s thumb
and between her thighs
knelt at the altar between her knee caps
God was feeling her cum
God was the crack of her laugh
I’ve seen God in the cataracts
the ridges of a back
the junkie looking to score
bludgeoned grapes
that fell from the cart
a foreign seashore
violent rain I feared
would drown me
in that hut.
and that trunk
that devoured my smell
never to forget.
I felt seen
in ways that can’t be blinked
with sight.
that slate steel hide.
I found God in your ears.
a mother bear with cubs
headlights in their eyes
let nature stop us in our tracks
take the right of way, we said.
we marveled at our fear
and the tumble of those footsteps
in snow
a spider just crawled across my keyboard
I tried to flick her off
I hadn’t meant to kill her
keys smudged with guts
she’s God too.
I’m sorry.
I’m still learning to yield
to you
nature.
teach me.
teach me about your God.