Daily Archives: October 19, 2013

God In The Ginger Ale

God is everywhere,
even in this ginger ale.

If an atheist
swallows God up
through a straw
without noticing,
what will end first —
the universe, God,
the atheist, or our sense
of absurdity?

The atheist will say
nothing will end,
because there was
no God in the ginger ale.
He will say this
while glowing
righteously.  

If an artist creates
great art inspired by 
what she calls “God,”
shouldn’t we burn it
or her, once God 
no longer exists?

The atheist, levitating
over the pyre
of the Sistine Chapel,
Notre Dame, the ghosts
of Baniyan’s Buddhas, 
Angkor Wat, and Rapa Nui,
chooses a Titian altar piece
to toss on the fire.  Meanwhile

God sits by — warming up,
drying up, laughing loudly.
This happens all the time.
It’s not like it changes anything.


Dream Game

The dream game is offered:
chess, or some variant,
played with the tiny severed heads
of friends, strangers, and celebrities.

What if I refuse,
I ask the darkness that gave me this.
Suppose I go back to sleep
and shove this nightmare aside?

Do you want to be a knight
or a bishop, the darkness responds.
I’ve got many players lined up for this one.
Play or I’ll put your head in the game.

Play or be played — this old line again.  Still, I refuse.
At once I’m asleep and bleeding between the fingers
of some stranger who looks, oddly enough,
completely at peace.  Of course, in his game, I’m a pawn.