What Will Happen to G!d?

I
have often asked myself
a
seemingly unanswerable question.
Over
and again, I have wondered,
What
will happen to G?d
in
the not-so-distant future
when
all of us earthlings
will
have perished,
when,
as a result of our plundering
of
this precious Earth
we
will have gone the way of the dodo bird
and
the passenger pigeon?
What
will happen to G!d?

I
have wondered out loud,
and
I have pondered in the quiet of my heart.

With
the Torah or Talmud open before me,
their
ancient black letters
speaking
to me from the past,
I
have wondered.

In
the woods alone,
among
the trees and beside the water,
watching
the sunset,
listening
to the geese,
I
have wondered,
What
will happen to G?d
when
we earthlings are gone?

In
the evening,
when
the sun has set
but
the darkness we earthlings have banished
hasn’t
come,
I
have wondered.
In
the quiet of the night,
when
many sleep
and
few are listening
as
a distant owl hoots,
I
have wondered,
What
will happen to G!d?

In
the cacophony of the city,
with
cars honking and trolleys squeaking,
with
voices of many languages blending together
and
people of every hue weaving past each other,
I
have wondered,
What
will happen to G?d
when
we earthlings are gone,
our
demise
the
result of our disregard
for
this precious Earth and each other?

As
candles flicker before me,
welcoming
a day of rest and celebration,
when
my heart quiets and peace settles over my home,
I
have wondered,
What
will happen to G!d?

And
every time, in every place,
the
same answer has welled up within me.
Every
time,
in
every place,
I
have heard,
I
have felt,
I
have experienced
the
same answer.

G!d
will endure.
G?d
will survive.
G!d
will always be.

Brokenhearted,
consumed
by grief,
but
ever-resilient,
the
Mystery,
the
Spirit,
the
Wonder
will
abide,
never
forgetting,
always
remembering,

when
we earthlings
are
gone.

℘℘℘℘

Katy Z. Allen is a poet and a devoted lover of the more‑than‑human world. A retired rabbi of an outdoor congregation, she has also served as a healthcare chaplain, co‑founded a Jewish climate organisation, and works as an eco‑chaplain. She is a member of the LGBTQ community and has been writing in one form or another throughout her life. Her poetry has appeared or is forthcoming in Amethyst Review, The Bluebird Word, and Art on the Trails: Number 9, among other venues. Her book, A Tree of Life: A Story in Word, Image, and Text, was published by Strong Voices.