Just once
and in the spirit of whatever winks
please help me create a dearly different religion
Steeped in hoot toot
and with whistling almighties
All given over unto
and believed in
with heavens upon
from the get go
Yes teach me how to sing like vines on porches
or as spit-jokes do
or as hummings that run past holy
And with what’s twisted in knots
Let it be so
as undone and ever shall be
with the faith of my sillies
Yes let me become cartwheeling trumpets
or those abracadabra blessings —
a vision of whatsoever is coming
all juicy laden with stings and say so
And so on and unto
into my rolling hereafters
into devout soap bubble amens
just once but forever beyond
— HIRAM LAREW
Hiram Larew’s latest collection, This Much Very, was published in 2025 by Alien Buddha Press. As founder of Poetry X Hunger, he’s bringing poets from around the world to the anti-hunger cause. He lives in Maryland.