By Jane Barnes

For mc

***

your idea of God is very plaid Bermuda shorts
I think Michelangelo and da Vinci are the

dudes you report to and shit-faced it’s
very hard to go down in the quarry and pick

out the stone to roll away from the door
of your tomb you are a little slice of God

I am too God is the rain or the flesh or the
right shade of burnt ochre you’re too late

you been praying all this long time and
you even have a Jesus look going (tee

hee to you about that) and don’t
get me wrong I’m no Christian if anything

buddhist spirit means there are quicker
ways to do things than just hauling ass

you got a gift just let it drag you around
your brain is handy but not like just

splashing the paint and the pain all
around belief can pay for a second home

Jane Barnes has finished a poetry manuscript covering 25 years in 250 poems called “The Inbetween: Poems 1982-2007.” A short story of Jane’s, “too big to hug,” is carved on a granite pillar at Copley Square in Back Bay, Boston.

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