Pratik : PRATIK LA ISSUE SPECIAL : AMERICAN POET BRENDAN CONSTANTINE, "Heretical Poem"

Thursday, September 2, 2021

PRATIK LA ISSUE SPECIAL : AMERICAN POET BRENDAN CONSTANTINE, "Heretical Poem"

BRENDAN CONSTANTINE

Heretical Poem

My friend Robert wonders if God

is the green light inside the escalator.

I haven’t asked my neighbor, but

judging by his t-shirts, he thinks God

is a seagull trapped in a rainbow.

I heard my Greek grandmother say

the word a few times; once when

she burned her wrist on a stove

and again, softly, when I dyed

my hair blue. It was a long time

ago and even God was younger.

My mother believes in something,

she says, even though everything

points against it. My father believes,

devoutly, in fact, that everyone

is equally wrong. This wrongness,

he says, is divine. Sometimes,

when I’m driving, I speak aloud

to the empty seat next to me.

I ask questions, make demands,

and rehearse what I would say

to the past. If that isn’t a prayer

I don’t know what is. Unless your

picture facedown on the dresser

is one. The cup I set on it yesterday.

The hard sugar that survived the tea.

Brendan Constantine is the author of four books of poetry. His work has appeared in Best American Poetry, Poem-a-Day, Prairie Schooner, Poetry Daily, Tin House and many other journals. He has received support and commissions from the Getty Museum, James Irvine Foundation, and the National Endowment for the Arts. He currently teaches at the Windward School and, since 2017, has been developing poetry workshops for people with Aphasia.

Now available on Amazon USA, Canada, UK and India