I Am God

by Richard Stoltzfoos

In the line of Chanticleer’s album The Rivers Are Our Brothers

I am God; I am singular.
I am the meteor; I am the action; I ride the clouds with fire in my hands.
I made your soul; my name is Jah; I own the land.

I am the stars’ accountant; I twirl the sun to watch it spin.
I delight in shaping dandelions; I am the king of the beetles.
I am maternal; I am masculine; I am the only.
I am the first to speak.
I am related, my three persons. I am father; I am begotten; I am within.
I am the riddle of the ventriloquist.
I am the imagination that is reality; my non-existence is impossible.
I am the earth-shattering answer to an unasked question.
I recline like a satisfied tiger across time.

I am God; I am what I am.
I am the distant corner; I am Duchenne laughter.
I have a body, and I can suffer, and I have died.
I am the arms of love; I am looking for you.

Richard Stoltzfoos is the son of Adin,
son of Wilmer,
son of Elam,
son of Moses,
son of Samuel,
son of John,
son of Christian,
son of Nicholas Stoltzfus,
who in the year 1766 emigrated from Europe,
being born of Christian Gottlieb Stoltzfus,
of the Saxon line of that name
which began in the year of our Lord 400,
by the provision of God, in German Saxony.

Photography by Kenneth Godoy