God’s Email
Emily Gordon
Does God need a friendly follow-up
or should I have added a priority flag
Was there an autoreply I missed
or is he out of office
I used exclamation points but not too many
plus one strategic smiley-face emoji
tone can be so hard to read in emails to God
He once told me to boil it down to five bullet points
so he could read it on his BlackBerry without scrolling
on the other hand I know when the content is emotional
it’s better to just pick up the phone
Does God have a filter on his inbox
to send me to Promotions or Updates
when I just want to be in Primary
What does it mean that he used all lowercase
or did his assistant write it
there was no subject line
God please just let me know what I’m in for
with a short and descriptive subject line
Emily Gordon grew up in Wisconsin and California and is a longtime journalist and editor. Her poems have also appeared in The Baffler, The Women’s Review of Books, Painted Bride Quarterly, Indie Soleil, HIV Here and Now, Transition, and the Toronto Globe & Mail. She lives in New Haven, Connecticut, and is a sound improviser for the Dirty Little Secrets show in New York City.