The most memorable are the finals,
my father on a morphine drip,
burying my first dog, Sporty.
According to Oxford, "goodbye"
is shortened God-to-be-with-you.
Surfing articles before Morning Joe, I come across:
“Even the most unreligious among us
invokes God more than we might think,
especially when parting from another person.”
I think first of me, and my purported agnosticism.
I always think of myself as the most unreligious
of my family, friends, and acquaintances,
and while I want to attribute this quote to Reagan’s boy,
the avowed atheist, “not afraid to burn in hell.”
It turns out to be Merrill Perlman, NYT.
Every morning with coffee I plug "ADIEU"
into Wordle to determine today’s vowels.
I realize I’ve been doing this every morning
for as long as I can remember, which these
days, usually goes back maybe 5 or 6 years.
It’s the only time I ever use this word,
and I know it’s a sexy way to say goodbye,
it’s often used to describe goodbye,
“He whispered a fond adieu”—
it literally, to the French, means “to God.”
I have a God, it’s not one who is judgmental,
or requires a congregation to recognize.
I don’t ask it for anything, it’s not he or she,
doesn’t preside at board meetings,
or struggle with pronouns.
There is some solace this morning,
after this surfing, and getting it in three,
that I might be a notorious churchless infidel,
but I start every day with Starbucks,
remembering the finals, and a prayer.
Craig Kirchner is retired and thinks of poetry as hobo art. He loves storytelling and the aesthetics of the paper and pen. He has had two poems nominated for the Pushcart, and has a book of poetry, Roomful of Navels. After a writing hiatus, he was recently published in Poetry Quarterly, Decadent Review, New World Writing, Neologism, The Light Ekphrastic, Unlikely Stories, Wild Violet, Last Stanza, Unbroken, The Globe Review, Skinny, Your Impossible Voice, Fairfield Scribes, Spillwords, WitCraft, Bombfire, Ink in Thirds, Ginosko, Last Leaves, Literary Heist, Blotter, Quail Bell , Ariel Chart, Lit Shark, Gas, Teach-Write, Cape Magazine, Scars, Yellow Mama, Rundelania, Flora Fiction, Young Ravens, Loud Coffee Press, Edge of Humanity, Carolina Muse, and the Journal of Expressive Writing and has work forthcoming in Valiant Scribe, Chiron Review, Sybil, Timalda’s Diary, Vine Leaf Press, Wise Owl, Moria, The Argyle, Same Faces, Floyd County Moonshine, and Coneflower Café.