Poetry – Paul Hostovsky

OMG

Two teenagers saying it 

over and over sprinkled in 

among their sentences

in front of him in line

at the Dunkin Donuts gave him

this great idea for a poem 

about God being on everybody’s tongue—

it would be numinous and reverent, 

yet at the same time colloquial  

and irreverent, which was exactly 

what it was: vernacular and a little 

oracular. It would show (not tell) 

how everyone (even those who don’t believe 

in God and never give God a thought) 

call upon Him in their everyday gab, palaver, gossip, 

chatter, cavil, quibble, grumble. It would be 

an apology of sorts in defense of

taking the name of the Lord thy God in vain 

(he would look up which Commandment that was).

It was all coming together in his head 

until his turn came in line and he ordered 

a medium regular, and a glazed donut—

on second thought, two—then checked 

his phone, then forgot all about

the poem. Meanwhile the two teenagers walked

out the door and across the parking lot, 

still talking about the world with God 

on their tongues, God in every other breath,

God in their exhalations, God evaporating

in the air above the Dunkin Donuts

like a great idea.