Williston
︎︎︎ Sarah Beth Spraggins
︎ Oct 27, 2025
Laura, I’m angry.
It all seems so unnatural
in our religion.
Filaments of heavenly light spill out
of my water bottle and into
the intersection
but dissipate just as fast
and people scatter
like dropped pills.
Every week
you bake in your oven.
You are always coming up
with new sacraments.
Cake is concise.
Weren’t you the one
who taught me how to pray
in the first place? At the top
of that building
saying ask him this,
ask him that.
If you didn’t know
what to think,
you would ask
that he show you
where he was in physical
proximity.
Jesus appeared
in different places in the room.
I chase his figure
with my rat mind,
blurry and dark.
Sometimes a pink spot shows up
and I think it’s his flesh,
but then, like I said,
it goes away.
Faster than it used to.
Laura, I’m scared.
Inside the projection
of a star’s fuzz, I think
the wicked will ruin themselves
before punishment
finds them.
It all seems so unnatural
in our religion.
Filaments of heavenly light spill out
of my water bottle and into
the intersection
but dissipate just as fast
and people scatter
like dropped pills.
Every week
you bake in your oven.
You are always coming up
with new sacraments.
Cake is concise.
Weren’t you the one
who taught me how to pray
in the first place? At the top
of that building
saying ask him this,
ask him that.
If you didn’t know
what to think,
you would ask
that he show you
where he was in physical
proximity.
Jesus appeared
in different places in the room.
I chase his figure
with my rat mind,
blurry and dark.
Sometimes a pink spot shows up
and I think it’s his flesh,
but then, like I said,
it goes away.
Faster than it used to.
Laura, I’m scared.
Inside the projection
of a star’s fuzz, I think
the wicked will ruin themselves
before punishment
finds them.
Sarah Beth Spraggins is a writer in Washington, DC.