issue 8
// poetry
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by Dick Westheimer
Go to mass. Ask the priest
to confess. Tell everyone
about sin. Raise the dead.
Remind them of your kin who died
laughing. Laugh. Ask your parents what
position they preferred.
Read a poem. Write a poem.
Tell your Rabbi you met
Adam and Eve in a bar,
that both were a little drunk
and Eve told you that Adam snored
then Adam reported that Eve
didn’t even like apples, just
ate one to mess with the snake.
Take two gummies instead of one.
Drink hemlock. Blaspheme God.
Inquire within. Meditate
on your navel until you realize
it is where the universe of you
first burned. Eat a jalapeño and then
rub your eye. Hire a guide
to take you to a place
unholy. You’ll recognize it
from your poem. Remember:
everything is a sign. Lie down
in the grass on a late-summer evening
and count the stars. Count them again.
Contemplate the crickets singing
you to sleep. Sleep and Dream and Wake.
Skip work. Rent a time machine. Go
back to Eden and warn the serpent:
The god is the vengeful kind and Eve
knows which trees are worthy of climbing.
about the author // Dick Westheimer
| Dick Westheimer lives in rural southwest Ohio with his wife and writing companion, Debbie. He is winner of the 2026 Third Wednesday Poetry Prize, the 2026 Poetry in Defense of Science Poetry Prize, the 2023 Joy Harjo Poetry Prize and a Rattle Poetry Prize finalist. His poems have appeared in ONLY POEMS, Whale Road Review, Rattle, Amsterdam Quarterly, One Art, Minyan, and Vox Populi. His chapbook, A Sword in Both Hands, Poems Responding to Russia’s War on Ukraine, is published by SheilaNaGig. |
Instagram: @rlwesty_poet
Facebook: “Dick Westheimer”
