On GoD

By Jason B. Crawford

We have all done it 

in the sweat licked heat of summer; 

thought of the ways an ice cold Gatorade 

can coat the tailend of the throat

and made a promise to our savior 

in exchange for moistened prayer. 

How we quote scripture in our language

as we talk about the girl made of matches 

set tumbling to the sun 

We speak of the soft-memory fables 

around crashing beer bottles

and hollerin’ mouths gaping with spit

around a campfire mid July night. 

Everything on the words of future. 

We say On God, and it means 

I promise everything to you 

or equally nothing at all.

We sit around the dinner table, 

bellies full off collards and cornbread 

and we say On God, 

this is the best meal that has ever been made, 

while our grandma, hands readied 

in a spatula-whip position,

snips to not use the Lord's name in vain,

but we only mean it as a hymn. 

On god I promise. 

On god, I will fight 

to keep all those around me alive, 

all of this family 

and friends that are family, 

that I break my body into bread for, 

On God, I mean oh God, 

I mean this is not in vain, 

I pray, 

I pray, 

I pray, 

I am enough to feed them.

This piece originally appeared in Issue 1 of Handwritten & Co, in print.

Jason B. Crawford (They/He)was born in Washington DC, raised in Lansing, MI. Their debut chapbook collection Summertime Fine is out through Variant Lit. Their second chapbook Twerkable Moments is due from Paper Nautilus Press in 2021. Their debut Full Length Year of the Unicorn Kidz will be out in 2022 from Sundress Publications.