#Pride and a Better God

Dear you,

Pride month, and all over the nation (the world perhaps), we are celebrating all people's right to simply BE.  Even in the deep red Florida Panhandle, there are Pride events in little places like Niceville.  Thank you Niceville for being more than nice. Surely the local chapters of Moms for Liberty are peeing their proper panties and decrying these gatherings as godless. Well, their "god" is something to consider.  And reject.  Let a poet clarify what I cannot:

Prayer/Oracion

BY FRANCISCO X. ALARCÓN

I want a god

as my accomplice

who spends nights

in houses

of ill repute

and gets up late

on Saturdays

a god

who whistles

through the streets

and trembles

before the lips

of his lover

a god

who waits in line

at the entrance

of movie houses

and likes to drink

café au lait

a god

who spits

blood from

tuberculosis and

doesn’t even have

enough for bus fare

a god

knocked

unconscious

by the billy club

of a policeman

at a demonstration

a god

who pisses

out of fear

before the flaring

electrodes

of torture

a god

who hurts

to the last

bone and

bites the air

in pain

a jobless god

a striking god

a hungry god

a fugitive god

an exiled god

an enraged god

a god

who longs

from jail

for a change

in the order

of things

I want a

more godlike

god

AMEN to that.

Happy Pride Month!

Joyce