They are introducing children to God.
\nI stood stupefied.
\nCould I come in? I asked.
\nWhat ages are permitted?
\nThe teachers laughed.
\nI was not serious.
\nPerhaps a tinge of the cold wall
\nthat covers an old heart,
\nlooking for the new sky that spring offers.
\nI could not imagine what time
\nGod would come,
\nto conduct songs,
\ntalk about history,
\nexplain the geography of heaven.<\/p>\n
What was the world coming to? I thought.
\nAll my life I\u2019ve wondered.
\nWhere was I going?
\nWho told me about saints and prophets?
\nWhat could I do,
\nto get tickets to salvation?
\nExcept start over.
\nTake a course.
\nListen to the teachers explain,
\nand sit among the children,
\nnodding my head,
\nsmelling the air,
\nplaying with my toes,
\nwhile God came and told us stories.<\/p>\n
Or perhaps,
\na long time ago,
\nwhen no one was looking,
\nwhen the righteous took a nap,
\nwe saw kingdoms under stones,
\nvalleys in the garden,
\nrooms and arches under a bush.
\nI played with companions
\nof the mind,
\nwho trusted me.
\nAnd they asked apocryphally,
\nare you God?
\nAnd I said,
\nif you want me to be.<\/p>\n
Well you are, they said,
\nsince you made us up.
\nAnd I replied, OK.
\nSo now,
\nas an old man,
\nI\u2019d like to sit in class without a word,
\nand ask God silently.<\/p>\n
Am I your imagined friend?
\nAnd perhaps God would say,
\nyes.
\nNow,
\nwill you play with me?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
They are introducing children to God. I stood stupefied. Could I come in? I asked. What ages are permitted? The teachers laughed. I was not…<\/p>\n