The bellslike a leviathanbreach the membrane of the liquid dark,tumbling forth like a vanguardincited by adrenaline and the call of drumbeats.The God Paradox States: 1. If God is omnipotent and omnibenevolent, He has the power and also the desire to end evil.Through the open window, the January airbites at the alveoli lodged deep behind my sternum;moonbeams litter the asphalt in geometric shapesrefracted by a million prisms all the way down.2. If God is omniscient and omnipotent, He has the knowledge and also the power to end evil. 3. If God is omniscient and omnibenevolent, He has the knowledge and also the desire to end evilThe night is austere, the world holding its collective breathfor the dawn of sunrise and the gift of another day;I drive by the specter of the old cemetery, and the bells continue to tollcalling the faithful back to God.4.) Evil exists. 5.) Therefore…My unfinished Ph.D.in Nietzschean philosophyfloats into my forebrain like an air bubble.“God is dead,” I tell the bells,recalling my catechisms from a former lifetimewith a sardonicism that feels almost like mourning. “This is not for God,” the bells tell me. “This is just for you.” I drive and I listento the notes dancing through the dark on the way to my ears – the chimes and the melody and the perfect fifths – as the night opens up ahead of meand the rest of my life beckons from right down the road.————————————–Shannon Frost Greenstein called us from Jenkintown, PA.voicemailpoems.org/submit/facebook.com/voicemailpoemsx.com/voicemailpoemsbsky.app/profile/voicemailpoems.bsky.socialinstagram.com/voicemailpoems