Faith

By Donna Hilbert

My dad read The Power
of Positive Thinking
and How to Win Friends
and Influence People.
Mother read Daily Word
from the Unity School
of Christianity,
and when Dad took off drunk,
called their hotline in Missouri
to help her pray
he wasn’t dead.
I held my breath in tunnels,
counted backward
from one hundred,
went to church with Baptists,
got saved, sinned,
and saved again,
sang my own hymn, which began
When you wish upon a God . . .

Originally published in Pearl Magazine.