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My brother sent a text message
To my phone yesterday:
        Forget for one moment
        That you are you.
        Think of yourself
        Only as a manifestation
        Of God, and say something
        To me - anything.
And I did not know what to say.
I could not be certain if it was
A trick question or genuine effort
To know himself better, to know me
Better by knowing my subconscious
Thoughts, or to assist me elevate
Myself from the limitations of humanness
To the wise realm of good spirits.
I am not always paranoid, but why
I questioned this is that I have been known
To possess a talent for offending
With my tongue - that often unchecked
Channel of my trespassing thoughts,
So, I took the fifth on this.

The question has refused to go away
Eating at my mind like a hideous virus:
Am I a manifestation of God?
How could I, yet be such a creature
Of imperfection of body and mind,
Clueless on how to choose my friends,
Unsure sometimes what my vocation
Must be, unable to heal the sick
And the dying, powerless to stop
The slaughter of men from New York
Through Afghanistan to Tel Aviv,
In the dark on how to rid the world
Of the spectre of child molesters?
I don't even know what it is exactly
I am supposed to be doing on this planet.

Despite my recent doubts of his understanding
Of his own job description, is God the supreme
Intelligence, energy and source of all things?
I think so.
Am I a manifestation of God?
I don't think so.

Written by Nnorom Azuonye

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