Shane McCrae, is an American poet, born September 22, 1975.
THE HASTILY ASSEMBLED ANGEL CONSIDERS WHAT IT MEANS TO BE IN THE IMAGE OF
Shane McCrae
Humans being made in the image not of God
Directly but of the angel who the day God made
Human beings most resembled God who changes
The way light changes as the sun in the morning
Becomes the sun in the afternoon in the evening
And in the night and to resemble God
Is to resemble light the way a bed
Resembles sunlight when sunlight is spread
Across it to resemble God is to
Remain the bed as the light slides away
The hastily assembled angel when
Humans appeared on Earth at first the an-
gel didn’t see any resemblance he
Saw his reflection in a pond and marked
Neither the similarities nor differ-
ences between himself and humans their
Voices climbed a canyon to his tent
In the clouds and though they laughed and shouted
With voices like the voices of the other
Angels he never once hoped he was be-
ing called If God had made me for them he
Shouted down hours after the laughing pack
Had left the canyon I might watch them
Instead God merely hadn’t called him back
After the other angels shoved him from
Heaven instead the angel watched the sun until he
Began to think it was the eye of God
Even though he felt sure God had
No eyes no body and no voice with which
To call him back instead he watched a forest
At the edge of the canyon he watched it until
A different pack of humans cut the shortest
Fully grown tree down then he watched the tree as
The humans dragged it to their camp he watched the
Tree as the humans broke the tree apart he
Watched as the humans carved the parts of the tree in-
to gods with bodies and glowering faces
He watched the humans as they bowed to the gods
He watched them like a small child watching dancers
Forgetting his own body bowing as they bow