If every snail shell had stained glass windows, I would go to church more by Max DeZarate

walking along abandoned shores

collecting and inspecting

old houses of snails

whose design plays as reminder

of ways that nothing is so simple anymore.

holding these old homes

we feel less

in these father-things:

the coolness of

saints with golden mouths,

stained sea glass,

secrets most unmotherly—

redrawing life in ways we wish

to do many things

and not become any of them.

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Max DeZarate is a poet based out of Bend, Oregon. His works have been previously featured in the Wingless Dreamer’s “depths of summer” and Silver Rose Magazine. Max’s poetry explores the ways we are taught to love and relate and how we can push through traditional understanding to new and beautiful places.