Conception “They’re up there now,” Bishop Gray croons from the pulpit. His eyes move to the chapel ceiling. “Billions and billions of spirits waiting to inhabit mortal bodies, warriors saved for these last days, ready…
Niles awoke from a strange dream to find that his snoring had once again driven his wife from their bed. On his way to the bathroom, he peered into the darkened living room and, as…
I’ve been inured to violence, so understand,
I’ve no sensation for nails smashing through feet:
Instead, show the tale of footprints on the beach,
because I know how sore feet get in sand.
On line at Rite-Aid where a woman cuts in front of me, says: He
was saving my place. There’s no saving places, I say. She says to
him, Did I not ask you to save my place? He says nothing. She
prods. She goads. He relents: There’s no saving places. Then I’ll
Belly flop off a high board the closest I ever got.
Nothing like that couple we saw.
Hand-in-hand freefalling off the Towers.
Chucked my cell phone
into the ocean in a move to be more
alone. Was the Palm Pilot
Once I picnicked with an atheist
(only one in Davis County?),
spread our gourmet bounty
on a blanket where we lay,
Does the margin ail you? Scary edge of things,
where fools barely cling to normal, fail
to hug the middle. Do they bug you—out there
on the ledge beyond the pale? Ugly,
You’re going to miss it. You’re distracted. Sit up straight. You’re not paying attention.
God does not come and go—your attention does.
All sins are just variations on that same desire to do something else when you’re already doing something. Multitaskers are children of the devil. You can’t serve two masters. Divided attention is just dressed-up inattention.
I’m Lila, a heat-drugged woman announces, edging her weight out of an overstuffed room into the hall. How can I help you? I explain we are his family. She says she is sorry. He seemed like such a nice man.