Nature Worship
by Johanna DeBiase
She folded her knees beneath her and
hung her head over her praying hands, “Please, please, Mother
Nature, not now, I'm not ready.” She made the altar in art class
when she decided that she did not believe in God anymore. Without
proof of a kingdom in heaven, she was unwilling to be part of the
hoax. Instead, she decided to believe in Mother Nature because there
was proof of her all around. She used old wood scraps for the base
and glued on pictures of plants. In the center, she glued a silver
fairy to represent Mother Nature. She was pleased with her project
and so was her teacher who gave her an A.
At night, she knelt at Nature's altar
and promised to be good if only Desomnd would fall in love with her,
for she learned in school that love was just hormones and hormones
were part of Nature. When Desmond kissed her under the bleachers, she
knew her altar had worked so she asked for more. And Desomnd called
her his girlfriend and Desomnd asked her to the dance.
But the night of the dance, Nature
betrayed her when blood, red as the plastic chili peppers she glued
to her altar, ran down the inside of her thigh. She cursed Nature,
throwing her altar across the floor before begging God to make it
stop.
