by Michael Akuchie

For years, I accepted the theory that
God’s mercy had an ending. So I
stopped soliciting for myself,
my country, and the homeless man whose
pleas for a kind act rattled the gate that
kept my mind from working itself to madness.
I carved a distance too vast for a forest to fit.
Meeting you made me remember how
to make prayer with honesty to taste.
To find Him, I did not need
to wrestle the beast of denial or
reenact the day Abraham readied Isaac
for an embrace with the knife.
I cultivated an enduring hunger to feel close.

Michael Akuchie’s poems have appeared in Poet Lore, The Rumpus, Cosmonauts Avenue, Lost Balloon, Drunk Monkeys, Ecotheo Review, Whale Road Review, and Gordon Square Review. His debut chapbook of poems, Wreck (The Hellebore Press), was published in 2021. He lives in Lagos, Nigeria. He’s on Twitter/X as @Michael_Akuchie.