undelete

so this woman is in the hospital
pretty dinged up
a car slammed right through
the pharmacy concrete block wall
punched a hole
she was innocently bystanding
on the other side of -
no conclusive report
about the driver
drunk or stoned
or heart attack
or texting
or fed up waiting in line
for his prescriptions

but of what we can all be assured
because the victim enlightens us
in the interview
is that god was watching out for her
never mind that
god might have spared her suffering completely
in any of his infinitely creative ways
by any of his omnipotent means -
delayed her in highway construction
or had the voices tell her to go to wallgreens
instead of cvs

but the point is he had his eyes
on the flight of this one sparrow
or maybe was just looking the other way
in japan recently
or north carolina yesterday
or in new orleans a few years back
or in haiti
or when the oil spill in the gulf went on and on
or maybe they were net total unbelievers

she asserts god stopped the car just short of
smearing her down the shampoo aisle
because he is partial to her
or perhaps to jojoba coconut infusion cream rinse
but consider
he could have previously smote her with perfectly balanced ph
and she would have been
nowhere near the hair care products

And she stands not alone in witness
among the blessed -
the father whose nine children were spared
when the bomb exploded on the left bank
asserts that god spared his family
due to his righteousness
while the slacker father
across the alley
somehow transgressed
just enough to justify
to this extremely conscientious
bean-counter of retribution
to trounce his entire family
by aligning them all
precisely within the bull’s eye
of the bomb’s trajectory

And when I pray
it is to be delivered from basking
for all eternity within the radiance
of a supreme entity contrived
to justify cruelty in the guise moral superiority
to explain all random sorrow
to self-congratulate all dumb luck
of our existence

god: 1

the unworthy: 0

woman who goes to church with manageable hair: 1

innocent bystanders: 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0

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