A Jehovah’s Witness visited
and though our interest was limited
she politely insisted
on leaving a leaflet
so we could take time and study it
the leaflet was called:
Should You Believe in a Creator? You Decide
with a picture of people on a mountainside
looking up at the milky way
which looked a bit photoshopped but that’s okay
it’s not easy getting a shot like that
especially when you live in a flat
anyway
the JW was okay
seemed friendly
complimentary
(I’m sorry to say we denied her entry)

later I skimmed it
would’ve binned it
rejected it
if the JW wasn’t coming back and expected it

but I did like some of the leaflet photos
like this woman caught in a thinking pose
between someone holding a big black Bible
and someone else with a DNA spiral

with chapter headings like:
What Scientists Cannot Tell Us
or
How Can You Decide?
or
Examine the Evidence
with pictures of comically cosmic events
like lava spilling out of vents
or Adam and Eve in a line with rhinos
(suspiciously CIS but what do I know)

I think the basic thrust of it was
there HAD to be a Creator because
there was such a variety of squids and plants
and things like ants couldn’t happen by chance
all this complexity from one big bang?
the natural world from a perfect blank?
nothing comes from nothing as Shakespeare said
(and would say a lot more but he’s currently dead)

there MUST be a God
atheists are crazy, downright odd

but you see
it seems to me
that whale in the picture doesn’t have a notion
how it came to be arsing about in the ocean
it lives its whole whale life quite innocent
of only eating krill as a heavenly instrument
to the glory of some beardy bloke
who harvests devotion but hates god jokes

so I’m sorry JW, it’s a no from me
to the question you asked so pleasantly
doing your best
on your door-to-door quest
to leaflet and illuminate us
making sense of our place in the universe
but honestly? I find your rubric stifling
(do you want it back or shall I put it in recycling?)