How low did you have to go?
By Diane Seuss
To the hell
level where they kept
the clown
costumes?
Or puppet room
Bible school
where the bad
girl had
to crouch on a step
stool
during the choral
reading of the archive
of begats
in Genesis 5?
Or lower,
to the steamy hive
of pipes and charts
in the machine
room below
metaphysics and art?
Althea found it
years ago, in a snowy
meadow, deep
in the sticks. She held
a dowsing rod
shaped from a wire
hanger which swung
in the general
direction of god.
Source: Poetry (May 2026)