Out There/In Here Poem by Glen Kappy

"Out there"—
by which I mainly mean the congregation—
I avoid gender references to God—
I know it's metaphor
and remember my friend
sexually abused by her father
who just can't think of God that way.

But "in here"—
in the chapel of my mind and heart—
God is "Father"—
with abundant precedent it's comfortable
and my dad—generous and warm—
and who spanked me only once
that I remember—and that reluctantly—
showed in many ways he loved me.