Pragmatism
Faith is a practical item, something
like a plastic bag.
You can carry groceries in it –
providing there’s money to buy them.
You can tie it on at the ankle to keep
your foot dry in a deluge — though
the rest of you is going to get soaked.
You can fill it with water and lob it
over the roof, store chicken bones
in the freezer until garbage day.
leave it in the back seat
in case anyone gets carsick.
You can turn it inside out. Still empty.
You can put it over your head
and breathe deeply.
– Antonia Clark
Antonia Clark works for a medical software company in Burlington, Vermont, and is co-administrator of an online poetry workshop, The Waters. Recent poems have appeared in The 2River View, Anderbo, Apparatus Magazine, The Cortland Review, Soundzine, Umbrella, and elsewhere. She loves French food and wine, and plays French café music on a sparkly purple accordion. Links to online publications can be found at http://sites.google.com/site/antoniaclark/.
