Claire Scott’s most recent poem to appear here was “Die Die” (November 2019). 

When God is Not God
By Claire Scott

God thinks he is god, a paranoid delusion of the fifth degree
combs his orange hair, tunes to Fox to find what he thinks
plays a jillion holes of golf with seraphim who let him win every round
groveling cheats

Knowing which side their manna is buttered on
he sits on a plywood throne covered in faux rubies flashing MAGA red
randomly screaming “off with their heads” as he munches

childish tweets 

Big Macs with fries first tasted by Matthew or Mark, patting
his ever expanding girth while trying to keep his size extra-extra-
large cardboard crown from slipping off his comb-over
surly bleats

God thinks he is god when he says it’s time to build a mile-wide moat
around Mar-a-Lech complete with alligators & immigrant-eating eels
while his ministers carve smiles on their wooden faces
lackeys he chose

Agreeing he has no need to read the summaries
presented by cherubim or the facts & figures of Saint Peter
or the military strategies devised by sword-wielding archangels
no one dares oppose

We are waiting for a child to slip through the cumulous clouds
wearing innocence & a Warriors cap
we are waiting for a child to whisper sotto voce
                  he’s not wearing clothes