"In All Likelihood" by Brendan Constantine

In All Likelihood

Your picture is only worth about 620 words

God has no personality

Everybody gets to the next world
at the same instant

There is a secret network of Bad Samaritans

God has no teeth

You’ve eaten something living

You own something stolen

God's hearing is shot

You will die on the right day

You are already mourned

Praying aloud is like listening to space

Your first breath has circled the earth
several times and passed you by

Brendan Constantine

Brendan Constantine's work has appeared in Best American Poetry, Prairie Schooner, Ploughshares, Virginia Quarterly, and Poem-a-Day, among other journals. His most recent collection is Dementia, My Darling (Red Hen Press, 2016). He has received grants and commissions from the Getty Museum, James Irvine Foundation, and the National Endowment for the Arts. He currently teaches poetry at the Windward School and offers classes to hospitals, foster homes, veterans, and the elderly.

Photo Credit: Staff