Food and Faith

Mid-November One-and-a-Half Sonnet in Shanxi


I was quoting the Catholic catechism as
example today, speaking of education
and the Plymouth Brethren by quoting
question-and-answer from fifty years ago,
‘God made me, giving me a body and a soul.’
Thirty two Chinese students laughed loudly.
‘God made the world’ drew a bigger laugh.
They were laughing at my early beliefs
and I was confused. I stopped quoting and
went on to how turkeys ran wild and were
captured by Wampanoag braves and how
the Plymouth Brethren roasted turkey for
Thanksgiving, dressed with wild pumpkin.
Somehow, food is safer ground than faith.

We diverted to Halloween and
pumpkin-faced Jack-o’-lanterns. Out
the window, five flights down, Confucius
stood among withered roses, a scroll
of analects greying in
sulphur dioxide. It would’ve been better
if he had written the Clean Air Act …