God No. 2

My God who is the bodies of all the men I’ve loved
the breasts I could not suck enough
who is the cat’s body
with the eyelashes of a doll
and the hardness of a doll’s plastic chest
who is the black space in the sky
the stars like holes stabbed
bleeding and stupid to be killed like a thief
restless a tribe of outcasts in the desert
who is unpronounceable
who is carved in stone
particles of sand and granite adhering into a tablet
a forgotten language
who is the bodies in mass graves
the mossy hair overgrown above the graves
the mulch the lily the chlorophyll filling the air the cow’s gnashing teeth the meat
God who is the calcium the code inside the chromosomes the rebellion of the cells
My God with the whisper
with the whiskery laughing
with the singing like rain hammering on the roof of the universe
resonating through my teeth
and through the whiskey-throated singer
God of can’t stop me
God of no sorrow
saying write me write me write

Lisa Bernstein (Lisa B) is the author of two books of poetry and is a contributor to many magazines and anthologies including Beyond Lament: Poets of the World Bearing Witness to the Holocaust. She is also a singer and songwriter. “God No. 2 ” is included on her first full-length CD “Free Me for the Joy,” available from Piece of Pie Records, P.O. Box 20663, Oakland, CA 94620.