Reason Stares

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Brigham is boiling inside
at the audacity of the prophet
who said that God was once
a man.

Eliza sits and thinks of the greatness
of it all: the potential of man.
That men are children of God,
and like true heirs of their Father,
they will become
all that He is.

Brigham grasps desperate fingers
around his still-new faith,
a faith made suddenly slippery
with doubt.

The faith that has been her sustenance
through the miles and marches,
the violence and violations
to mind and body,
swells within her, healing the doubts
that came riding on the heels of the mobs.

If God was a man, then,
but to Brigham this thought
is almost too horrible to think,
then man could become a God.

If God was once a man,
then man could become a God.
Her smile has not faded
when suddenly, her jaw drops
as reason leads her to the inevitable
conclusion.

No, the thought makes reason stare.
For Brigham has seen no man
who could ever be a God.

Truth is reason,
Truth Eternal tells her:

If King Follet had not died,
if Joseph Smith had not spoken
at King’s funeral,
Lorenzo’s little couplet
would not have come back to haunt Brigham.
And Brigham knows this will indeed be a haunting
wrestle with mind and soul
to make himself believe.

That woman can become a God too.