Arthur Russell
God
Knock, knock. The vestibule light goes dark.
Then, the porch light goes out too.
Behind the door
the scrape of a butane lighter wheel
and the little hiss of gas.
God is a shut in
who turns off the lights
to make you think no one is home
and then stands just inches away
in the dark, smoking a cigarette.
Bio
Arthur Russell is a poet living in Nutley, New Jersey. HIs poems have been published by Brooklyn Poets and Yellow Chair Review. His poem Whales off Manhattan Beach Breaching in Winter will be anthologized this year in Bettering American Poetry and won Honorable Mention in the Allen Ginsberg Poetry Award.