Do You Love Me? (Kilian McDonnell)

This poem was found in the magazine “Spirituality and Health.”

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My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Mark 15:34

Some stupid pistol picked off the street lights
on rattlesnake road as I stumble over shards

walking to your palace. Nothing’s the same.
When I come to your well, I have no thirst.

The edge of your word no longer cuts;
that altar bread like cardboard.

I, bone-cold, need more love
than I deserve. I seek your fire

because I know you share your hearth
with lost children, lost sheep.

You send out cinder cookies, freshly
baked, while I wait outside your gate.