Sneeze-Time

The demons crank open the maws and power inside the skulls

Of the non-vigilant sneezers,

That is what Catholic school taught me

On some level that blessings were like weapons

Warding off the notion of the nothingness

With the specter of a war, between the omnipotent creator of all and his enemies

And God like Gandalf in Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings

Sounds like a real asshole

The white-wizard has the power to send hobbits on flying eagles

The whole way back, but makes them walk the way there

He could have helped, but chose not to

That is the default contingency of such a magician of the universe

So in that case I could see why the fallen-angels would be so upset

With a listless do-nothing in the face of such horrid abomination

So all these bless-you’s flying about in reaction to mucus catapults

I desist in full protest!

I will not say such phrases to my co-workers despite their compulsion

To say such for me; I would prefer silence

For after Google-searching the internet I can find little substitutes for an atheist

I am trying to teach my daughter and me to yell, “Sneeze” as an arbitrary counter phrase or

“What time is it?” “Sneeze-Time!”

As if this near-rendezvous for a future exorcism could be celebrated with playful gusto

It is as relevant as any of our other bodily reactions, science is problematic to ritual

For as time progresses the holes in ritual are tickled like a body in motion

That once set is bound to stay in motion unless acted upon by another force

And those of muted inertia, stoic in time do not move still

The stimulation does nothing, but have stone remain stone, yet

The nebula of the universe are in perpetual flux,

Whether one chooses to peer into the vast darkness or not