For All I Know

You taught me the alphabet and how to use

certain words. You taught me to have faith,

to pray to a god who was never there. I learned

what I could from you, and when that was not

enough, I relied on music and museums, on

birds, dead raccoon and rouge elephants, on

Iowa corn fields, Kansas City steaks and the

mistakes Lincoln and Hemingway made to

expand my understanding. Life turned out to be

a binary choice, either you’re right or wrong,

no matter what you decide, you live or you die.

Of course we make so much more of it all than

that. As a young Catholic boy at the end of every

Mass, I was lead by the priest to pray for the

conversion of Russia. I often wondered if the

Russians said daily prayers for the likes of me.

I and my countrymen could have used some help,

you know. The vodka you sent instead of your

prayers seemed to help for awhile, but eventually

wound up making a hell of a lot more trouble for me.

Chris Hanch 4-25-18