: Door :
an excerpt by Joshua Rivkin
Then, He opens a window,
says the television mother to her crippled son.
The boy tries a smile. A light breeze
catches the edge of her sundress
as she stands to kiss the top of his head.
Fortune implied. Scene.
Who believes the power of Faith is greater
than the power of Fact
has been duped.
Call me sucker. Call me fool.
A rube, a glutton, punked
by the oldest promise in the book.
God closes a door,
and rips the roof off the house,
furniture turned out to the lawn.
He opens a window for a swarm of bees.
A lightning bolt divides the ceiling.
And later, just to prove who's boss
He puts my fist through the wall. Calls it a window.
