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God

By Michael RyanUpdated Wednesday, May 5, 1999, at 4:31 AM ET

Maybe you're a verb, or some
lost part of speech
that would let us talk sense
instead of monkey-screech

when we try to explain you
to our loved ones and ourselves
when we most need to.
Who knows why someone dies

on the brink of happiness,
his true love finally found,
the world showering success
as if the world were only a cloud

that floated in a dream
above a perfect day?
Are you also dreaming our words?
Give us something to say.

for D.B.

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Michael Ryan won the Lenore Marshall Prize for God Hunger and the 2005 Kingsley Tufts Award for New and Selected Poems.
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