10.15.17

I was crouched in the aisle
of a used bookstore,
listening to woman
babble about the fate
of the nation,
& nothing that slipped
from her cocaine tongue
bothered me more than
when she said there is
only one god and those
who believe in multiple gods are
godless. Aside from being
mathematically corrupt,
I thought to myself:
I have many gods
& you are one of them,
perhaps the most important.
I will bend the knee
to every facet of your
magnificence & discover
& love your many faces
like a pagan in a shop
that sells the masks of gods.
I am a whore for gods
& I always have been.
If ever you abandon me
I’ll expel you from my memory
& surrender my allegiance to
the next god & the next &
the next. Because what that
wretched woman failed to understand
was that gods are like husbands,
there will always be more of them.

Written at 7:05 at night, in my office, in Agoura Hills CA.