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Veniality of Man

by Kristi Paik


Underdressed for the unseasonable October chill
He stands outside the Q train line
With signs and pamphlets that show
He has way too much time on his old hands

He links the Holocaust to Christ
September 11th to Apocalypse
“Eve’s Choice” to the Whores at the Point…

On most occasions, this man is my daily routine
An object, An inconvenience
I must surpass in order to get to where
I really don’t want to be to begin with

Most read his signs as a source of amusement
In between shuffling through songs on their iPod
Or turning the pages on their OK! Magazine

I read his newly painted quote on an
old cardboard cutout that said
“Sin is the air you breathe“

I tried so hard not to laugh, I heard something pop

God saved him from himself
His God is Kind
But will send us to hell
For all our sins and damnations
so the old man says

Eager to find the answers
To a man so clearly more
enlightened than myself
I decided to speak to this
God walking among men
And said:

humans are able to more than any earthling
choose their destiny
but not their air…
How can you breathe in the purest of all air
when you share the same space with all the sinners that you despise?
You say your God is kind
as you lay with sinful filth and point the finger at us

Your God is dead like you.


As I boarded the train I expected to hear
The ranting and ravings of a religious crazed zealot
Silence….from a man with all the answers
Silence…for what seemed like a lifetime
Silence…until my train screamed through the sin-filled air.

I haven't seen him since.

10/29/2008

Posted on 10/29/2008
Copyright © 2024 Kristi Paik

Member Comments on this Poem
Posted by Ken Harnisch on 11/07/08 at 11:58 PM

"the Purest of All Air?"

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