for Francis  

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the hunter-gatherer

expresses his faith in the mechanics of the universe

by burying his feet in the soil

allowing it to shift under the sun

and sleeping in its church

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all pulls of nature are microcosmic gods

tugging on each other’s tails

coagulating centrifugal forces

upholding the planet for no particular reason

other than to exist 

this will come to be known as faith

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soon there will be scars from provenance

and new gods who wrestle on the story 

spoken planes of existence to worship 

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but for now

the hunter-gatherer

puts one foot behind the last 

this becomes communion

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the prayer is the earth shifting

continental spiritual drift

one tribe to another

exchanging nothing but movement

the functional traffic of energy

later this becomes known as war

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too practical to get swept up in dogma

the hunter-gatherer raises a rock to the sky

for no particular reason 

other than to block the sun

this is misinterpreted as worship

and becomes the first death 

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expressing his faith in the corpse on the ground

the first shaman picks up the rock

and declares it the effigy of the one true god 

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the shaman razes the earth

and sanctifies the new world 

built on the expression of faith

that the universe has always belonged to us 

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