I got a glimpse of God
By Willie James King, USA.
It was when I was alone
in the woods I wasn’t lonely.
I knew where I was. Sepia
and black blotches interchangeably
dressed the grounds and squirrels
scampered away as my clumsy
shoes set dry grasses singing,
intermittently snapped sticks.
I have seen sleeping owls
while their heads were hunched
deep in the snugness of their shoulders,
heard blue-jays’ startled squalls.
I have held snakes free from slither
by the help of forked limbs
to rub upon their their rough skin
to gain a closer look at them.
I have sat where thumb-sized
snails slow-crawled in the damp
thickness of their cherished chapels.
I swung on poisonous vines, and
took wild grapes to make wine.
I have tested soil where hardly
another human had ever trod.
I saw deer drink from the creek’s
crumpled stream, and have
tasted the same, knowing
fully well my human heart
might be many things but,
it will never be tamed.
(c. ) Willie James King.
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