like a stone in a robin’s nest
a streetlamp that burns all day
a hall or a chalkboard or a tintype

like a cigarette or a coffee cup
a rain squall off Cozumel
the way a widow closes her blind

like a name tag or a soap bubble
like a lost poem or the smell of rust
there is only one way to pray

•••

when God comes or goes
this is not God

when God sits or lies down
this is not God

because God means the one
who comes from nothing

and goes nowhere
this is why God is called God

•••

and when you pray
pray for nothing that God
may reward you with nothing

and when your darkness arrives
ask God for the breath to sing
the only known psalm of the darkness

This article appears in December 2020.

John Samuel Tieman's chapbook, A Concise Biography of Original Sin, is published by BkMk Press. His poetry has appeared in The Americas Review, The Caribbean Quarterly, The Iowa Review, Rattle and other publications.