by Cecil Morris
At the corner of faith and culture in Southern Washington,
the Christian conservative congressional candidate
says that she will bring Scripture-filled and Spirit-infused Prayers
for the Battlefield to the halls of congress to fight for faith,
to make us kneel in the benevolent and delighted light of Christ.
She says that she is MomStrong and homeschool smart,
the author of a bunch of books celebrating bibles
and moms. She says that she puts babies first, that they are her first
and most important constituents, both gift and purpose.
She says that she stands for gun rights and ammo. She says
that she is unapologetic, which means, I suppose,
that she does not ask for or need forgiveness, does not know
contrition. She says that there are just two genders, that God
created them in his image male and female, and I think
that she believes in a hermaphroditic deity,
a god of two genders at once, that she worships a god
with cock and cunt. Or maybe her god is gender fluid,
a male today, a female tomorrow, a god who goes back
and forth as it pleases or as it is necessary
like His perfected creations the Lythrypnus dalli
or Crepidula fornicata or Cornu aspersum.
Or maybe her conception of god is genderless,
more idea or ideal than body—disembodied
and beyond gender concerns. Is creation wrong
or is God or is this Christian candidate mistaken
in her understanding of what God meant or means?
I don’t know. But here, amid the multiple wonders
of this world, amid the incredible diversity
of this life, would God have given us just two genders,
a paltry coin-flip two, an either-or, a binary choice,
a mere dichotomy, a language of only two words
while all around us hums such a rich abundance.
I do not know the mind of God (if such a thing exists),
but I do know for certain sure that I do not want
this person to have the power to govern over me.
Author's Note: The italized portions of lines 3-4 and 13-14 come from (first) Heidi St. John’s website promoting her books, podcasts, and ministry and (second) from her campaign ad aired on KGW Portland on July 22, 2022.
Cecil Morris, a retired high school English teacher, divides his time between Oregon and California. He has poems in or forthcoming from 3Elements, Ekphrastic Review, English Journal, Evening Street Review, Hiram Review, Hole in the Head Review, The New Verse News, Scapegoat, Talking River Review, and other literary magazines.