Conversion

by Justin Lacour

i’ve had many conversions my last was realizing the panic no matter how much medicine they pump in me is never going away i’m never going to be totally comfortable having a conversation or praying i pray but not well and knowing that’s nothing to be sad over not if that’s what You want i don’t need it to go away though it would be a sign the way letting me write again was a sign so i already had a sign i need no other sign but two pieces of wood at right angles and Your corpse not hoisted impossibly high like in the paintings but so close my breath puffs into Your mouth to tell me whatever panic i panic is part of Your death in some miniscule and infinitely important way

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Justin Lacour lives in New Orleans with his wife and three children. His first full-length collection, A Season in Heck & Other Poems, is forthcoming from Fernwood Press.

Image: Wim van’t Einde

ID: Close-up expression on statue of Jesus Christ.