Rehearsal for Heaven
My parents never gave me
that grounding faith,
the ethereal connective tissue
binding human essence
to the design of the universe.
Sometimes I sense God
after having coffee, conversing
with a minister,
a rabbi, a witness,
or some born again
millennial, but then
I wonder
if the profound feeling
is merely a caffeine rush.
I can’t imagine some timeless,
white-bearded patriarch
looking after my welfare
beyond his creation
of a sinful first mother.
But dimensions of the world
are stunning—nature,
gravity, weather cycles,
capacity to love, the craving
for immortality—
better to be safe,
to be kind,
to be humble,
better to rehearse for heaven.
Yvette A. Schnoeker-Shorb is the author of Shapes That Stay (Kelsay Books, 2021). Her poetry has appeared in Slipstream Magazine, New York Quarterly, Camas: The Nature of the West, St. Katherine Review, AJN: The American Journal of Nursing, and other publications. She has served in various capacities as an educator, a researcher, and an editor. She lives with her husband in the Central Highlands of Arizona.
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