04-06-2016, 04:30 PM
The first time I saw God
The first time I saw God I thought I had died
I was like 'God, is that you?' and he was like 'Yeah man, whatever'
in an Indian accent, and that's when I realised that the fucker was Indian –
full blooded Sioux, I mean, and this made me think
'How do I know what the Sioux sound like? I haven't even been to the States.'
Soon after, he opened a Koran, which pissed me off,
this demonstrated disbelief in Jesus,
and marked up the squiggly text, edits
for the end of the World.
Once in a while He'd look at me, as if to ask the meaning of Arabic words no longer spoken and probably a copying error anyway
then He'd look away.
I thought of putting out my doobie, my very first doobie,
but it had cost me some, and I smoked it until the terrapin
with hurt eyes replaced Him suddenly when I looked away, then back,
and since then I have searched again and again in vain, rain
for the soul's dry solitude, my rack, my rod.
But that was the only time I saw God.
Note: I hope I haven't unconsciously lifted L2 from some other pome - let me know if I have. Sometimes it's hard to distinguish between your thoughts at an earlier time, and just something you've read before. The second last line is probably stolen unconsciously from Hopkins (or from an earlier poem of mine in imitation of Hopkins!!), but I can't place it and have left it as it is.
The first time I saw God I thought I had died
I was like 'God, is that you?' and he was like 'Yeah man, whatever'
in an Indian accent, and that's when I realised that the fucker was Indian –
full blooded Sioux, I mean, and this made me think
'How do I know what the Sioux sound like? I haven't even been to the States.'
Soon after, he opened a Koran, which pissed me off,
this demonstrated disbelief in Jesus,
and marked up the squiggly text, edits
for the end of the World.
Once in a while He'd look at me, as if to ask the meaning of Arabic words no longer spoken and probably a copying error anyway
then He'd look away.
I thought of putting out my doobie, my very first doobie,
but it had cost me some, and I smoked it until the terrapin
with hurt eyes replaced Him suddenly when I looked away, then back,
and since then I have searched again and again in vain, rain
for the soul's dry solitude, my rack, my rod.
But that was the only time I saw God.
Note: I hope I haven't unconsciously lifted L2 from some other pome - let me know if I have. Sometimes it's hard to distinguish between your thoughts at an earlier time, and just something you've read before. The second last line is probably stolen unconsciously from Hopkins (or from an earlier poem of mine in imitation of Hopkins!!), but I can't place it and have left it as it is.
~ I think I just quoted myself - Achebe