When I Met God for the First Time

by Amirah Al Wassif

The God I know works as a baker in a local shop.
From time to time, I see him feeding the kittens breadcrumbs soaked in milk.
He is not as huge as the religious men tell us;
his hand is small, a normal size like all of ours.
He even has a red mole above his left eyebrow,
just like my bank employee's uncle.
One time, I saw him smoking his pipe while his eyes were tearful.
I asked him in an inaudible voice,
"What is the matter, O God? Are you alright?"
God exhaled his smoke, creating millions of clouds above my head.
Then he looked directly at me.
At that moment, I cautiously approached him; after all, he is God.
And I heard the meow of a cat under his arm.
I stood in amazement, inhaling the scent of fresh bread
while observing the secret stash of kittens,
watching all these flying cats escaping from under his arm.

Amirah Al Wassif is an award-winning published poet. Her poetry collection, For Those Who Don’t Know Chocolate, was published in February 2019 by Poetic Justice Books & Arts. Her illustrated children’s book, The Cocoa Boy and Other Stories was published in February 2020. Her poetry book, How to bury a curious girl, was published by Bedazzled Ink Publishing Company in 2022.

Her poems have appeared in several print and online publications, including South Florida Poetry, Birmingham Arts Journal, Hawaii Review, The Meniscus, Chiron Review, The Hunger, Writers Resist, Right Now, Reckoning, New Welsh, Event Magazine, and many others.

Her latest book, The Rules of Blind Obedience, will be released in December 2024.

Cindy Rosmus originally hails from the Ironbound section of Newark, NJ, once voted the “unfriendliest city on the planet.” She talks like Anybodys from West Side Story and everybody from Saturday Night Fever. Her noir/horror/bizarro stories have been published in the coolest places, such as Shotgun Honey; Megazine; Dark Dossier; The Rye Whiskey Review, Under the Bleachers, and Rock and a Hard Place. She is the editor/art director of Yellow Mama. She’s published seven collections of short stories. Cindy is a Gemini, a Christian, and an animal rights advocate. She has recently branched out into photo illustration.