Paddling by the Shore. Kim Fabricius

is the pest who won’t leave us alone,

      God is the boulder that lies in the way,

      and God is the needle concealed in the hay.

      God is the tiger that stalks us as prey,

      God is the rash that will not go away,

      God is the player who breaks all the rules,

      and God is the wise one who acts like a fool.

      God is the wrestler with arm round our throat,

      God is the poison with no antidote,

      God is the joker at wild in the deck,

      and God is the king that no bishop can check.

      God, you elude all our thinking and words—

      eyes have not seen you and ears have not heard—

      God, you’re the Poet, we’ll follow your way

      by painting new pictures your self to portray.

      * “The Tooth / That nibbles at the soul—” is the concluding line of Emily Dickinson’s poem “This World is not Conclusion.”