If I were a god, would you lay at my altar?
Seek my favor?
Beg my blessing?
If I were a god I might grant it
And the infinite verse would be
No bigger or smaller for the giving.
If I were a god, I’d be
the most radiant, most terrible
sight that you would love and fear.
Trees would grow from my hair and
Mountains down my stomach
Rain pounding down from my skin
And the lightning in my eyes
Would make you run for shelter
Even as you longed for me.
Odin? Zeus? Kali?
Chumps.
Odin gave his eye for poetry but
I’ve got both mine
And can still spit lines that
Call grapes from the vine
Make them turn themselves to wine.
Would you like some?
If I were a god, I’d smell like stars on fire.
Would you want to be shepherded?
Cherished? Desired?
Did nobody tell you what happens
to those who are loved by gods?
If I were a god, I’d be
king of angels, or
queen of the underworld, or
the non binary sovereign of
glitter, feather boas, & too much bass–
If I were a god,
I’d be a raging id,
have a credit card with no limit and
the brilliant, brutal cosmos
would be my Sak’s Fifth Avenue.
But I’d show you dawn on Jupiter,
we’d take tea on the floor of the sea,
we’d play pool with Amaterasu—
Nine ball, corner pocket,
Just for you.
Whether you risk being shattered
By the moods of a petty, jealous deity
Would be yours to decide.
Making you lay your heart down for
A capricious being whose hands drip magic,
That I could not do.
Making you want to be wrapped up in
the noctilucent clouds of my heavens,
is a delicious thought.
But alas,
making you love me would be
the one thing beyond my powers.
Would, my dear, that it were not.