Fat God/Thin God

Fat God

How can you mean to satisfy us by hurling down your bait—

love writhing on a hook and snagged in our guts—

while you, enthroned on the praises of your people

still sit, obese with the answers we still crave?

Thin God

Surely you must be thin by now, old fisherman,

dragging your hook through the centuries,

casting for us with every morsel of yourself,

luring emaciated us with a bait fish more succulent

than we have dreamed ourselves to be.

KEVINHADDUCK is the director of the Center for Academic Development at McPherson College in McPherson, Kansas, where he lives with his wife and two sons.