If/Then

Let’s just say there is no expanding universe,

no quarks and star nurseries,

no cosmic rays and dark matter,

and what if this green earth

were the only planet,

and the sky held nothing

but the sun and the moon,

shining and glowing in their turns,

and maybe only 30 or 40 stars

which you could see

from the porch on a clear night.

Wouldn’t it be more reasonable then

to accept that the Creator

would have time and the interest

to listen to everyone’s rising prayer:

to be forgiven for an injustice,

for a surgery to go well,

for it to start raining or stop raining,

for a lost pet to find its way home,

or for young Timmy (0–11) to somehow get on base?