A Simple Life Poem by Patti Masterman

I used to write such precise, edited comments
With a tight rein on myself- I knew once that
Little bit of control went- the sky was the limit
Of my errant ways and obscure references.
On a completely different subject, isn't it fun
To let religious people discover and try to convert you
To learn all about their religions, get all suffused
With the spirit- then reveal the bad boy punch line
That you're an atheist- 'Sorry just got carried away
For a minute there'. Not that I am a true atheist-
I carry no card- it's just that I'm like one of those
Strange unknown particles, suspected to exist
But nobody knows its charge or how it arises
Or what calls it forth or what extinguishes it.
The particle doesn't even know what it is itself-
That's a perfect summation of my spiritual side.
I envy people who can be handed a predigested,
Fully annotated, thick leather volume and then say,
Here is everything in the universe I believe in-
Their lives have got to be so much simpler than mine.