by Ken Sehested
There is a raucousness to God, in God, of God, by God
that the orderly mind cannot abide (finds chaotic, riotous)
that the prim-proper mind finds embarrassing (even trashy)
that the erudite mind judges tacky (mangy)
that the pious mind believes unseemly (well-nigh depraved)
that the disciplined mind finds rowdy (or at least untidy)
that the morally rigorous simply cannot condone.
Have you ever been in a place—
like, maybe, as a child in church, sitting
next to your best friend who,
despite trying hard not to
(how can I say this without
offending delicate sensitivities?),
“break wind”?
What might normally be
only marginally humorous, now
(given the solemn circumstances,
the prohibition of irreverence being severe)
becomes funny all out of proportion
and, despite your best efforts,
trying to swallow the guffaw
rising from your esophagus
(like trying to muzzle a sneeze),
it squirts out anyway, and the
breath suppressed shoots
up through the nasal cavity,
launching a snotty snort
out your nose, giggles
thus threatening a riot?
Listening to prayers, all day, all night,
hour after endless epoch,
that’s how God often gets.
©Ken Sehested, Lent 2015 @ prayerandpolitiks.org