On the Pere Marquette

When you
talk to
God do
you think

of it as
an idea to pay
attention to, as
a conversation

with a being
with some other
self, selfless unlike you
are not, but wish to

be? Like that Marine
marched us ‘round
the Seymour Square
Christian Reformed Church

parking lot, bunch’a Cadets
we were, we were
in His charge too
on a canoe

trip where the
Great Racoon first
told me why
the convertible did

not crack up when the other
guy in charge charged
passing on that narrow
2 lane Michigan blue

road. He gave me
a vanilla milkshake in Big
Rapids as some form
of reward, told

us all not to
tell our parents or
his sergeant about that
raccoon or the river while

Ed Sanders sang
Olsen with the Fugs:
“We drink & break open our veins
Only to know. Only to know.”