Dinner With God

Jesus is my lord, her bumper sticker says, practically reading itself aloud every time a car passes us on the boulevard and gives us a funny look at the red light that she'll run occasionally when she's late for her late shift at the local pub, or late for church, or late for her soap operas, or just wants to get home early and save God a spot at the dinner table so that if he shows up we're too one many, and I have to sit on the couch with a TV tray to eat overcooked chicken that tastes dry like the host when I take it at church, maybe out of devotion, maybe for salvation, maybe out of the fear that if I stayed seated in my pew when the whole place rose in worship she'd have my sore ass upwards and my belly flat over her skinny knees like she did years ago when I was five and I took my pants off at the park, because God can see me and I'm making everyone look bad, especially when I skip my homework and listen to love songs and spend too much time talking on the phone and I know she'd say the same thing if she knew I watched Three's Company every Wednesday night when she goes to Curves and comes home to a dark house with all bedroom doors open because guilt is a strong weapon and I'll be damned, maybe even literally, if I'm going to be caught with my hands tied up in it like my brother was when she barged through the door with threats of blindness and disease and a rejected invitation to God's fancy dinner parties, so to be safe I'll lay with my back flat and my arms on top of the covers until the cloud of light and misty mountain blues travelling from her bedroom to the hallway to my wide eager eyes finally go out, then I'll curl up with my arms crossed in frustration, inside my covers, and wonder why only she's allowed to listen the devil's music and watch young, restless people have affairs on television and then I'll fantasize about fancy dinner parties with men with long hair and bellbottom jeans where there's always a spot that's saved just for me, and I'll decide that I don't really like having dinner with God anyway.

#creative