Last weekend my youngest daughter
Watched my son leafing through
The encyclopedia
To find the first president
Of the United States.
Yesterday, she said, “I want
To look for God.” I tried
To explain how God was like
An atom – that he was energy
Creating everything
And everyone in ongoing
Processes of physical
And metaphysical
Existence. She said,
“No, in the pedia book … ”
She pointed at the encyclopedia.
We looked for the volume containing
God. Labeled “GEOG-GRAN”
It contained GOD including
A black-and-white of Michelangelo’s
Fresco atop the Sistine Chapel.
“According to the … pedia
Honey, there are four proofs
For the existence of God.”
She would have none of it.
She was far more fascinated
By the picture of an ox cart
Caravan in the GOBI Desert.
And the curved horns of the bezoar
GOAT and what delight she had
For the tawny frogmouth, a GOATSUCKER.
And then she was done looking
For God. The television
Blared on to Bugs Bunny rattling
Daffy. The hum of my
Computer buzzed its electronic
Dreams, my son knows George Washington
Is the first President
And my youngest daughter found God
In the encyclopedia.
And my youngest daughter cannot
Find God in the encyclopedia.
David Koehn’s poetry has been published, or is forthcoming in, a wide range of journals including The Bitter Oleander, Artful Dodge, Painted Bride, Wisconsin Review, West Wind Review, Southern Indiana Review, McSweeney’s, The Pittsburgh Quarterly, Oxford Magazine, Cutbank, Apalachee Quarterly, Waterways, and Alaska Quarterly. David has an MFA from the University of Florida, a BA in Professional and Creative Writing from Carnegie Mellon, an M.Ed (equiv.) from the University of Alaska, and was a Breadloaf Rural Teacher Fellow at Middlebury Breadloaf School of English.