Soto Poem #2

Mourning in Bay City

“She said that she was lonely
When I wasn’t around. I said people feel
Like that because they don’t know themselves.”
-Home Course in Religion by Gary Soto




Stay, she says
A while longer,
Jesus don't mind.
Worship each other
With knees to the earth
Before the Sun
Sees what we've done.

He stands faster
Than legs desire.
Falls back into softness
And lies.
Palm to her reddened chest
He says,
I am your lightning god.

A short walk
through the fog-drenched hills,
where the sting of salt-water spray
reminds the two: you are impermanent.
And the wind is sharper now.
Where the paths diverged
She sits alone,
On those hills, on that shore,
In the bedroom off the kitchen.
She is sharper now.

Minutes are in the habit
of tripping into fortnights.
Days are shorter,
the air is bitter cold.
He is lost out there,
between here and never.
As ever the sun traces
A loop in the sky.
Some days she looks up and ponders
The nature of deities
And contemplates a new faith.