“I have been with you wherever you went”

“Hotel Room” (1931) by Edward Hopper

from “Bible Study” by Tony Hoagland

I was on the road for so long by myself,

I took to reading motel Bibles just for company.

Lying on the chintz bedspread before going to sleep,

still feeling the motion of the car inside my body,

I thought some wrongness in my self had made me that alone.

And God said, You are worth more to me

than one hundred sparrows.

And when I read that, I wept.

And God said, Whom have I blessed more than I have blessed you?

And I looked at the mini bar

and the bad abstract hotel art on the wall

and the dark TV set watching like a deacon.

And God said, Survive. And carry my perfume among the perishing.