I
it's an easy thing
                   to have a god for yourself,
& such a big god grandma began to have           when my uncle died

                one that's even bigger than God.  
 
it's not a bad thing 
                  to have two gods when you lose a child, 
& you believed your dead son will resurrect  
            like your other God’s son.
 
II​​
how graceful was grandma 
                   to have gotten two gods for herself, 
one nailed in a photograph - looking down
at his bleeding legs,
 
                           & the other as a [​​        ].
 
III
for my grandma so loved her children,
                   that she’s no mother to entrust 
her children with one God anymore.
 

Bio:  Jeremy T. Karn  writes from somewhere in Liberia. His work had appeared and forthcoming in 20.35: Contemporary African Poets Volume III anthology, The Whale Road, Ice Floe Press, ARTmosterrific, Lolwe, Cypress Press, The Minute Magazine, Feral Poetry   Liminal Transit Review, The Remnants Archive, , The Kissing Dynamite, Walled City Journal, and elsewhere. 
His chapbook  (Miryam Magdalit)  has been selected by Kwame Dawes and Chris Abani  (The African Poetry Book Fund), in collaboration with Akashic Books, for the 2021 New-Generation African Poets chapbook box set.