Who is God to you
Is he an idea
a ghost
from a higher
and stranger plane

Or is he everything
a totality
with consciousness

Is he the mind of fire
the brain of war
rubble and disease

Is he shadows of a forest
the pulse of oceans
a glint in the eye
of an airborne sparrow

Does he lead you
Does he leave you
alone in the storm

Is he made of rain
feathers and hunger
Does he think

of anyone
or is he lost to himself
at once everywhere
and never
known to anything

/

Alexander Etheridge has been developing his poems and translations since 1998. His poems have been featured in The Potomac Review, Museum of Americana, Ink Sac, Welter Journal, The Cafe Review, The Madrigal, Abridged Magazine, Susurrus Magazine, The Journal, Roi Faineant Press, and many others. He was the winner of the Struck Match Poetry Prize in 1999, and a finalist for the Kingdoms in the Wild Poetry Prize in 2022. He is the author of, God Said Fire, and, Snowfire and Home.