What If God Is Strict

by Gloria Mindock


I am looking for the right flesh with no bleeding.
My voice free, hanging from the crucifix
Passion from these lips igniting sins
to clot my mouth

Crucifixes break every day,
are shoved into a drawer,
collect dust in a thrift shop
Sometimes Jesus becomes so dusty that cleaning
him is a problem
The dust too thick to let him resurrect

When he does, he sneezes?
Maybe Jesus will develop an allergy,
a miracle of life


* * * * *

What If God is Strict was first published in Nixes Mate Review (Spring Issue, 2020) and is part of Gloria Mindock's poetry collection Ash (Glass Lyre Press, 2021).

Gloria Mindock is the author of Ash (Glass Lyre Press), I Wish Francisco Franco Would Love Me (Nixes Mate Books), Whiteness of Bone (Glass Lyre Press), La Portile Raiului, translated into Romanian by Flavia Cosma (Ars Longa Press, Romania), Nothing Divine Here (U Šoku Štampa, Montenegro), and Blood Soaked Dresses (Ibbetson St. Press). Widely published in the USA and abroad, her poetry has been translated and published into eleven languages. Gloria is editor of Červená Barva Press and was the Poet Laureate in Somerville, MA in 2017 & 2018.