Adytum Abintra

by Tom Hunley

Before it has time to consider

the landlord who stole my deposit
with a fountainpen,
then headed for a prayer meeting;
or televangelists,
their prayers answered by Jaguars
& secretaries ready to fall
on their knees before God and man;
or plantation owners
manipulating their slaves with Paul’s letters
in Uncle Tom’s Cabin;

before it has time to judge
a forest by a few trees,
or remember the name of the philosopher
who said that God can’t exist
because no God would create a world
in which toilets are necessary;

my head—

as I walk past the blue and white marble
Greek Orthodox Church crowned by a cross
that resembles a dove ascending—

bows instinctively.

                                                                                            from Still, There’s a Glimmer

Tom C. Hunley is the husband of Ralaina Ruvalcaba and the father of Evan Joel Ruvalcaba Hunley. He has degrees from Highline Community College (AA), University of Washington (BA), Eastern Washington University (MFA) and Florida State University (Ph.D.), where he was the recipient of a 2002-2003 Kingsbury Fellowship. He is currently an Assistant Professor in the English Department at Western Kentucky University. Before settling on a career in academia, he worked as a public relations writer, a sportswriter, a technical writer, a warehouseman, a Salvation Army bellringer, an enumerator for the U.S. Census Bureau, a typist, a data entry clerk, a file clerk, a fry cook, a cashier, a dishwasher, night manager of a convenience store, and a canopy construction worker. He is the editor/publisher of Steel Toe Books.