In the Name of God

By Hope Joseph

(to all the wars fought for God)

We walk in silence, our bodies an open prayer 
to the omniscient. Our lives—planets going in a circle. 
Our lives—rings of fire burning in the hearth 
of the universe, dancing to the songs the 

spirit choose. And we'll never run out of prayers. 
We'll never run out of solemn songs. We're incurably
righteous and religious and have many gods. 

In the night, our hearts dance around 
campfires, casting  eerie shadows 
under the foot of the hanging hills. 
Far away in the dense forest, dry bones rent 
the night into shreds with their razor voices. 

Halloween is when grief 
forces itself on us after a terrorist attack. 
If Halloween is the season to celebrate saints, 
demons, and the dead, 
then let it run longer than October—it's a long list 
of the dead screaming to be heard. 

See what you made us do: blood painting the invisible God. 
Bodies like piles of rotten mangoes. 
Flies buzzing like flying tongues over a land 
rejuvenating on corpses. 

How terrible to be alive, 
to forget to breathe under muddy waters. 
Wildflowers sprouting from petrified bodies 
as if beauty could sprout from death. 

Death in the name of a living God.

Biography

Hope Joseph is an essayist and poet. He writes from Nigeria, West Africa. His works are forthcoming or already published in Notre Dame, Christian Science Monitor, Augur, Stormbird, SolarPunk, Riddlebird, Reckoning, The Sunlight Press,  Flute, Wizard In Space, Curio Cabinet, Speculative City, Timber Ghost Press, IBUA, SprinNG, Evening Street Press, Zoetic Press, Spillwords, Writers Space Africa, and more. A Best of the Net and Pushcart Prize nominee. A finalist for the SEVHAGE Prize (nonfiction). He's a reader for the Reckoning Press.

He is a 2021 Fellow of the Sprinng Writing Fellowship. He tweets @ItzJoe9. Website: https://mssg.me/3j5ka