Oracle
       

The god in my brain
is no god, only a homunculus
I recognize as myself.

The god in my heart,
the same. The god of my liver,
the same. The god

of my guts and thin skin:
me. The homunculus
guiding my father

bears his mustache
and heavy-lidded eyes.
Was it he who placed

the god in me that is me?
And what do I mean
by 9od, I wonder.

I take my questions
to the oracle, another
homunculus, and I say either:

Who placed the god in me?
What do I mean, when I say god?

The reply to either
being, Your father.

Stupid oracle, I think,
fathers are for children,

and I was never a child,
only a smaller image of myself.

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Copyright © 2018 Donika Kelly All rights reserved
from Black Warrior Review
Reprinted by Verse Daily® with permission