He went there to learn how to give a good perm and ended up just crazy about nails so He opened up His own shop. "Nails by Jim" He called it. He was afraid to call it Nails by God. He was sure people would think He was being disrespectful and using His own name in vain and nobody would tip.
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Recorded for Poem-a-Day, January 8, 2016.
Fog
the sun drops his knee on fog
a diurnal genuflection that
explains the lack of clarity in the prayer’s thought
when god prays to himself
using the fog’s opaque cushion
we know god is a child
who pretends to pray
because in the midst of his holy make-believe childhood
he is a beautiful version of daffodil twirling in dew
Copyright © 2016 by Vi Khi Nao. Originally published in Poem-a-Day on January 8, 2016, by the Academy of American Poets.
Copyright © 2016 by Vi Khi Nao. Originally published in Poem-a-Day on January 8, 2016, by the Academy of American Poets.
Vi Khi Nao
Vi Khi Nao is the author of Fish in Exile (Coffee House Press, 2016) and The Old Philosopher (Nightboat Books, 2016). She lives in Iowa City, Iowa.