a god as my accomplice

I missed yesterday due to having a bunch of student meetings and then a migraine, but I did have a poem picked out, so: Happy (day after) Easter, here is some queer devotional poetry.

I want a god
as my accomplice
who spends nights
in houses
of ill repute
and gets up late
on Saturdays

a god
who whistles
through the streets
and trembles
before the lips
of his lover

a god
who waits in line
at the entrance
of movie houses
and likes to drink
café au lait

a god
who spits
blood from
tuberculosis and
doesn't even have
enough for bus fare

a god
knocked
unconscious
by the billy club
of a policeman
at a demonstration

a god
who pisses
out of fear
before the flaring
electrodes
of torture

a god
who hurts
to the last
bone and
bites the air
in pain

a jobless god
a striking god
a hungry god
a fugitive god
an exiled god
an enraged god

a god
who longs
from jail
for a change
in the order
of things

I want a
more godlike
god

—Francisco X. Alarcón (1954-2016), "Prayer," ("Oracion"), translated by Francisco Aragón, from From the Other Side of Night (Del otro lado de la noche), 2002.