The Old Man and God

I am a slow, shaking old man,

my skin isn’t hanging yet,

but it looks like a crepe paper map

of someplace like Oklahoma or Idaho.

When younger and making acquaintances

of learned people, I would ask them

what they thought God was - only occasionally

was this well received and never reversed.

Everyone believes in God, you can count

self-proclaimed atheists on one hand.

I certainly didn’t want to be thought of as,

not afraid to burn in hell, though I wasn’t

Of course there’s Einstein, Nietzsche, Freud,

Bertrand Russell and Woody Allen,

but you know them for other things,

not their discussions or thoughts about God.

I put together a schtick, God is part 

of everything, he’s everywhere, like a dummy, 

letting the Lord ventriloquize through me, 

the mysteries of the universe.

As the years passed - the trees got taller,

fortune came and went, sons moved away,

the ritual aged, lost its verve, and I went

fewer places where empathy was a cornerstone. 

I no longer ask the question, rarely meet anyone 

who would be interested in the conversation, 

or my act. I am, however, progressively, everyday

looking more and more like Charlie McCarthy.

---

Craig is retired and living in Jacksonville because that’s where his grandchildren are. He loves the aesthetics of writing, has a book of poetry, Roomful of Navels, and has been nominated three times for Pushcart. He was recently published in Decadent Review, Chiron Review, The Main Street Rag, Hamilton Stone Review, Glacial Hill Review, 7^th Circle Pyrite, Fairfield Scribe, Fixator, Flora Fiction, Sybil, The Argyle, The Lake, Timada’s Diary, Wise Owl, Poetry Breakfast, Writers Resist, Writers Journal, Rushing thru the Dark, Lothlorien, Sparks of Calliope, Stereo Stories, Dark Winter, Gargoyle Magazine, Vine Leaf Press, Coffee and Conversation, Black Petal, Beatnik Cowboy, About Place, Atrium, Constellations, Confetti, Short Beasts, Literary Journal, Atrium, One Art, Mobius, and work forthcoming at The Main Street Rag, Abstract, Chiron Review, and several dozen others. He houses 500 books in his office and about 400 poems on a laptop. These words tend to keep him straight.