1.
It has been said that God is in the details.

Here, the details include
white pine needles,
toe bones from a badger,
dried red muscles
from a mink.

2.
Too fine a detail can fragment a God.

In the mink’s muscles
are ruminations on moon phases,
the badger’s toes tap starvation tales.
The needles still bear winter’s weight.

3.
Big Gods need big pictures.

To render big pictures one needs
a broad brush, preferably bristling
with badger or sable fur
mounted in a pine handle,
dipped liberally in thick carmine
and vermillion.

4.
There are Gods who care for nothing but truth and falsehood.

The red muscles pine for
something honest to do these days.
What is true can as well be false,
they scream. Contraction and extension
were their occupations once. As scarred
and withered as they are now, they still
remember that once, every motion
contained its opposite
and nothing was immutable.

5.
It has also been said that the devil is in the details.

It was a large God who declared that to be true.