thank you, mr obama

let's take God
and lock Him in a
little
black
box
(as if that could contain His presence).
then we'll strut around the world
(or our estimation of it)
making vanity our God
and convincing ourselves that pushing through bills He hates
will make Him disappear.

let's take God
and mount Him on a
great
white
pedestal
(as if He needed us to advertise His glory).
then we'll show the Conservatives that Democrats can be Christians, too
(even though none of us love Jesus)
trying to tweak the Gospel, to make it less offensive
until I am the Savior
and it isn't the Gospel at all.

let's take this crap of contradictions and smash them together
until it's obvious that they just don't fit
and then insist that of course we never tried to do a thing like that.
let's deny and rephrase and fill our speech with fluff
so we're neither Conservative nor Liberal
and especially not Muslim
(except for sometimes)
and then, for good measure, make God our campaign manager
all in the name of the polls,
the editorials,
and politics.

(c) Emma Gay 2009