I love to teach this course, and honestly
Announce I am an atheist. Though faith
Was welcome, fundamentalists would hate
The class, resent the scholarship, should flee
To nurturing churches where they would be free
To believe that serpents spoke, that man’s fate
Was just a whim of some dark creator.
Some thanked me and left. Others stayed to see—
Among them one smart-mouthed clown, smirking, spoke:
“Day four first sees the sun, how can we cred
Those earlier eves and morns? Just seeking
Truth.” I replied, embellishing his joke:
“Here’s a better question: when Yaweh said
‘Let there be light!’ to whom was he speaking?”
(2/14/07)