after the Tri-Faith Initiative
Derek Mong
[note for typesetting: maintain all formatting]
We made you because we needed someone to talk to.
We kept you to give cursing more flair.
If perched still on some hardscrabble hillside, if bearded in our nightly despairs—
remember:
this Honda outruns a prayer.
See the temple at the end
of this highway’s bright tendril?
See its high-poled antennas poke holes in your clouds?
Its mosaics and interfaith pamphlets
bring believers together like a murder of crows.
O Gods, O.G.s of the Abrahamic squad,
how long I’ve shunned your songs only to find you sharing quarters.
If one building’s big enough
to hold you all should we suppose you’ve shrunken?
Is this expansion or rebranding?
f
This air seethes with the cicadas’ static;
These fields are hopscotched with soybean and wheat.
Windows down, alone
with my body’s sounds, I envy any one
who is convinced you all are listening—
who does not feel in a sunburn’s peel
this pride: I know that I will end.
I am blessed with a beginning.
after the Tri-Faith Initiative Derek Mong [note for typesetting: maintain all formatting] We made you because we needed someone to talk to. We kept you to give cursing more flair. If perched still on some hardscrabble hillside, if bearded in our nightly despairs— remember: this Honda outruns a prayer. See the temple at …