Another Heaven
By Jeremiah Webster
Because it can only be hell
If the story that won is true,
I cannot join the promised bliss
Of Tertullian who heckles the lost
Through the laminated glass
Of heaven’s observation deck,
Or bask in election with Aquinas
Who watches the torments of Tartarus
(Via live video feed) every Sunday
To burgeon his felicity.
Calvin’s anthropology
Makes one envy the agape
Of golden retrievers, the sacrificial
Spawn of Pacific salmon,
And the wandering curiosity
Of worms: Imago Dei be damned.
And puritan Edwards,
Whose god dangles the reprobate
Like autonomous hors d’oeuvres
Over Hell’s appetite,
Makes pure
Malevolence
Of the God who is love.
Lord, unhitch the orthodox
From these dogmas of death,
Expedite a grace period
Of mass immigration
To that green and gilded country
Where your name
Emmanuel
Is all
Over all
In all.
Photo by Mick Haupt on Unsplash
Jeremiah Webster is an English Professor and Associate Rector based in the Pacific Northwest. His poems have appeared in numerous journals including North American Review, Beloit Poetry Journal, Crab Creek Review, Anglican Theological Review, Ruminate, Dappled Things, and Mockingbird. His first novel, Follow the Devil / Follow the Light (Acolyte Press) is a fantastique that draws inspiration from A Christmas Carol and Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland. His second poetry collection, Notes for a Postlude (Wipf and Stock), is a meditation on the aftermath of the pandemic and the dangerous rise of Trumpism. When he’s not teaching or writing poems, Jeremiah is the curator of Analog, a spiritual haven for students and working professionals, and Dungeons and Deacons, a community gaming guild, at his local parish.
