What Rough Beast | Poem for September 11, 2019

Kris Beaver
Convenience

We pray during commercials,
if we think of it in time,
batch cook on Sundays,
prepare to eat God’s bounty
for the week ahead.
We read bible stories on the toilet,
hum a two minute hymn
when brushing our teeth.
Multitasking is a way to worship,
to squeeze faith into the day
wherever it might fit. Not that
everyone is busy. Some are just
easily distracted and still searching
for shortcuts into a better afterlife.
Now that I’ve stopped watching
the news I have more hope
and hours left here or in heaven.

Kris Beaver’s poems have appeared in ERGO! (the literary magazine of Seattle’s esteemed and venerable Bumbershoot music and arts festival), Spindrift, Rattle, and The Fox Poetry Box in St. Charles, Illinois, among other places in print, online, and in public space. Beaver holds a BA in English from Whitman College and an MEd in curriculum and instruction from Lesley University. A retired elementary teacher, she now lives and writes poetry in the sublime Pacific Northwest.

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