Grieving god in the car

By Dure Ahmed

Since capitalism has decimated public transport and the hope
of a clean public bathroom,
I’ll piss in the Taco Bell, I said to my lover.
I said secularism works like a religion too, my friend
works for a democratic senator who never gets a thing done
because he believes in the system, the democratic process.
People build gods for themselves and go astray all the time,
the kind of gods the god we believed in called idols,
and if I leave this god, who’ll fill the power vacuum?
I have to pee so bad. “Does it feel good?” he asked.
So I stop forcing it and tell the pee to come, and suddenly
the urge isn’t even that strong. I love driving into the stars
I say. I meant the city lights, glittering below us
as we drive down the bridge.

Dure Ahmed is an immigrant writer based in New Jersey. Their work has appeared in The Boiler, Guernica, ANMLY, Black Warrior Review, and Many Nice Donkeys among other journals. Dure’s work has been supported by the University of Arizona MFA program, the Bread Loaf Writers’ Conference, and the Tin House Summer Workshop.