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FOR RENE
“The eternal mystery of the world is its comprehensibility… The fact that it is comprehensible is a miracle.” – Albert Einstein (1936) Cogitodice clatteragainsta cornerof the universe,rolling the bonesof a thousandgenerationsone slidesinto the black holevoida losernextplayerto the lineboxcarsstacked as cordwoodinto the pitrottingthe snakestaresat a halfeaten applehooded eyescloseHawkingpresses keysindicatingchuckling First Published in Ionosphere, Vol. 1, Issue…
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THE SNAKE’S LAMENT
You realize that it getstiring always being the onewho they try to blamefor all manner of sinsand flat-out mistakes. I get the garden, but allI did was show them the apple,they decided to eat it despiteHis warning, so how is that on me? And do you know how hardit was for the wife and Ito…
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OUT OF REACH
The Middle East continues to melt downlike an out of control nuclear pileleaving destruction and crushed dreamsscattered about the vast sandscape.I imagine God watching from highup in the heavenly grandstandknowing that so many others are nothere to see the race, only to wait forwhat they hope is the inevitable crash.Once He liked looking on Jerusalemwatching…
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LINGER
Sitting in the mall strip plaza coffee shopworking my way slowly through a nonfat cortadoI stared at the everything bagel lyingforlornly on the saucer, its thin coatof peanut butter wishing, as I did, that itwas a spread of cream cheese, all of thisa portent of a difficult day to follow, as ifpunishment for a former…
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JUST LIKE US
We love nothing more than to anthropomorphize. It is one of our defining characteristics. It makes our lives simpler since we can relate more easily to people than animals or things. And after all, we did make God in our image, or is it the other way around? Does God deimorphize us? Anyway, we know…
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TOTALLY UNFAIR
You realize, of course, that it wasan arbitrary and capricious decisionno matter what you say, making up the rulesas you go, changing them withoutconsulting those of us who are to bemost affected by the changes. Suremy brothers and sisters probably agreed,more for them with me out of the picture,but don’t give me the lecture on…
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PAY UP
Look carefully, focus, is thata cathedral of dreams on the horizonor a nightmare future that flowsinexorably toward you, withno escape route, the priceof waiting too long, of assumingit wouldn’t happen here, itwouldn’t happen to you, couldbe wished away, could beignored without peril.What last prayers will youoffer to a God deaf to you,whose prophets you spurned.This…
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HOW
How are we to deal with a God whose angel kills the first bornwhose only sin was to be born Egyptian who causes the sea to wash over an armydoing the bidding of a despot orfacing death at his hands who turns a city into saltfor the sins of the many but not all who…
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SABBATH
She could not understand whyanyone, really, would willinglygive up their Saturday morningto sit inside and recite prayershalf in a language that neitherthey nor most of the congregationspoke, and when I said some knewthe translations by heart, she added“then why not recite those.”She had a point, I knew, but wouldI easily concede, as if thatwould make…