A small, easy thing

It is no small, easy thing…
this small, easy thing:

To eat unhurredly,
to take small, unassuming bites
to finish them and swallow and pause

just pause.

Wisdom is slow.
Truth speaks in this quiet voice.

There is greatness
in just this:
cool slices of turkey
nestled in a buttery croissant

Knowing that last bite
left me only a little thirsty:
a half-mouthfull of water
from a cup unneding of ice cubes
is enough.

Untitled communion poem

The grotesqueries are the point.

It is a cracker, yes,
but it is also His Flesh
being ground to grit between my molars.

Not the Jews (or for the Jews)
Not the Romans (or for the Romans)
but me
for me

And yes,
it is simply lemon tea (instead of grape juice, we’re out)
in a chipped mug but
it’s also his blood
in my mouth
and down my esophagous

that full warm tang
surprises me
shocks me
sickens me
nourishes me

I am a canibal-vampire.
And it seems that this is how it must be.
And so I offer my thanks to God
for it.

A prayer

Father,
here I kneel.
at this small table with this empty cup.

If you fill it
I will drink it–
whatever it is that You put in there.

If you do not fill it
then I will still bring it to my lips
and I will breathe the cool air instead.

A bag full of Crickets

Was the cruelty accidental? 

To those little things it does not matter.

Some minimum wage slave hung it up here

in front of the lizard tanks.

 

The plodding grey thing at least looks happy.

Its tongue moves like it has a life of it’s own…

Waving a menacing hello

through the glass

 

through the clear plastic.

I wonder how long they’ve been locked in this tableau,

A crowd contemplating their fate

A lizard contemplated his supper…

 

It seems to have been a while.

Things are mostly now a stale mate.

The yellow gray creature stands here in the corner

looking both bored and eager.

 

Dozens of little bugs have resigned themselves.

They’ve settled into a gross pile of wings eyes legs shells

except for this one alone, away,

Legs moving legs moving legs moving

 

finding purchase impossibly in the smooth plastic

He runs like he were actually putting space between himself

and his predator.

I want to be that cricket.