AN ATHEIST HOPES FOR HEAVEN

There flows in my veins the most ancient of ardors:

Not power, or love, nor yet worship of God;

The fight that each tiniest baby fights hard as

Fought earliest man: “Understand!”  Pry and prod

With unquenchable flame of the world-disregarders

For Truth! – be it complex, destructive or odd.

If this fire is from Heaven, then Heaven I’ve earned;

So write on my grave: “This stone too shall be turned.”

Published in Shot Glass Journal, #18, January 2016