god's immaculate memory
GOD’S IMMACULATE MEMORY
by le hinton
He didn’t forget the time you dumped His
sister on her birthday or when you accidentally on purpose
touched His mother’s left breast.
A god just can’t forget those kinds of things.
He might forgive but  it will cost you.
His promise to not drown you
the next time gives
little comfort to a pyromaniac like you
who kindles every heart he touches
like tissue kissed by flame.
So He takes away your playthings
gradually,
not wanting you to make a scene.
Aphids visit all of your rosebushes
a week before the garden show.
Your ‘69 Dodge Charger with the Hemi engine,
stolen
and chopped into bite-size portions
of nostalgia.
Your girlfriend and her personal trainer,
never recovered,
and that huge argument with your twin brother
back in the Nineties,
he must be 41 now, too.
It seems too late to apologize or make amends
or to bake oatmeal cookies for the church bazaar.
So you don’t.
So the only thing God leaves you
is an out-of-tune piano that can still float
but plays everything in key of G minor.
It is all one needs
to circumnavigate this world full of fire and regret.
Image in the ending is terrific. Sometimes it takes being a prick to meet your maker as I found round twothousandandeight, to which when I think back my face twitches and phantom heavy metal screaming swirls in the background of an AA meeting where outside my Explorer’s wrapped around a pole and a person close to me is dead to me in more dimensions than I knew existed. Hardcore.
This also reminds me of the Don Gately character from Infinite Jest, and the whole line of thought brought on by this fine piece and the theme surrounding him makes one wonder when things do get better if it’s indeed payment fulfilled or merely the big debt collector in the sky temporarily ran out of bullets.
(Thanks)
I enjoy how the poem begins almost frivolously, and then progresses into something more powerful. Very well done, I especially appreciated the sentiment of “It seems too late to apologize or make amends.” Beautiful.