Unlike the Road to Hell,
The Road to Heaven is paved
With many things.

Consider sparrows. They
Make excellent base material
And are seldom missed.

And what about the Rabbis of
Treblinka? Their prayers ascend
Like incense. And ash packs well.

Throw in a few starving children
(Africans of course) and while you’re
At it, an aid worker or two.

And dogs beaten especially
For television. Show the dogs
With large eyes pleading

For humanity, praying for the Dog
Of Dogs to show his growling face,
And from you, for ten dollars a month.

Show the living room of the Good Shepherd
Counting sheep on his 70 inch wafer-thin TV,
Reclining in a Lazy Boy, kicking back with a

Cold one, doing what Good Shepherds
Always do. Taking a well deserved break
From deciding who gets sheared

and who gets slaughtered.

—

D.G. Geis lives in Houston, Texas. He has degrees from the University of Houston (B.A. English) and California State University (M.A. Philosophy).  He will be featured in a forthcoming Tupelo Press chapbook anthologizing  9 New Poets and is winner of Blue Bonnet Review‘s Fall 2015 Poetry Contest.