Second Coming No. 10 – Jan. 29, 2025

A poem-a-day series responding to the threat posed to our democracy by the current presidential administration

Catherine Gonick
Learning to See through Atheist Eyes

Senator McCarthy was on TV, and my father wore
his Adlai Stevenson shoe-with-a-hole-in-it pin.
In another must-watch show, Elizabeth wore ermine
and white satin to be crowned Queen of England.

I saw that one with my mother, who bought
me my own white-satin, pearl-studded dress
to make First Communion. Elizabeth felt blessed
by God, believed in her divine responsibility to serve.
Jesus belonged to my father’s tribe, so wasn’t really
God, but I swallowed him anyway.

Later, someone stuck under God into the Pledge
of Allegiance. Like my parents, I disapproved.
When my 4th-grade class reached those words,
I chose to remain silent. It was worse for Uncle Louis
who had to hide out for a while at Clear Lake.
He never became a citizen, and if he answered
the government’s subpoena, might be deported.
All the way back to Russia where he started.

After Confirmation, I stopped going to church.
Uncle Louis was never found out, and now,
as the latest wave of banishing gets under way,
Clear Lake’s blue-green algae has grown
so plentiful it can be seen from outer space.

---

Catherine Gonick‘s poems have appeared in Notre Dame Review, Forge, Beltway Poetry Quarterly, and Pedestal, and in anthologies including in plein air, Grabbed, Support Ukraine, and Rumors, Secrets & Lies: Poems About Pregnancy, Abortion and Choice. Her debut poetry collection is forthcoming in 2025 from Sheila-Na-Gig Editions. Gonick lives in the Hudson Valley, where she works with her husband on projects aiming to slow the rate of global warming.

---

Indolent Books and editor Michael Broder are back with another poem-a-day series as a creative response to the threat posed to our democracy by the current presidential administration. The plan is to continue for all 1460 days of the 47th American presidency.

---

Find out how to submit poems or flash prose pieces to Second Coming.

---

Second Coming is a section of Beachcomber Mike. To unsubscribe from a section:

1. Navigate to your account Settings page via www.substack.com/settingsand click on the publication you want to make changes to.

2. Slide the toggle next to each section you'd like to stop receiving emails or app notifications from. A gray toggle indicates that notifications will be off for that section.