With Desperation
My faith is a mauled tumbleweed not even buckshot could untangle. The gaps,
where I curl like a question. Marking my veneration with clumsy tongue stumbles
over verses I once had memorized. I’ve never had a brain, only a piston popping
bubbles on the surface of a baptismal font. Come thou daughter of the covenant;
in this house, we are devout. Belief is a relic giving way to know. I will never.
Cannot. Can drop wild flowers
between gospel pages and press them flat. Can raise my hand in supplication
for loaves I can actually taste. When I ask,
I swear I’m not trying to be a heretic, I just really need to know.
Taylor Franson-Thiel is a Pushcart nominated poet from Utah, now based in Fairfax, Virginia. She received her Master’s in creative writing from Utah State University and is pursuing an MFA at George Mason University. Her debut collection Bone Valley Hymnal is forthcoming in 2025 from ELJ Editions. She enjoys lifting heavy weights and posting reviews to Goodreads like someone is actually reading them. She can be found on Twitter @TaylorFranson and at TaylorFranson-Thiel.com