By Jove!

By Jove
By
James Robert Smith


My father
and my uncle Ersley
were arguing about the
existence of
God
in 1965 in
my uncle’s
sweltering beach house.

There they were,
the two of them
at the dining room table
as I sat
on a couch
dozing,
eight years
old.

My father,
in 1965 already
an aging
30s-era
communist.

My uncle,
a former Grand
Dragon
of the
KKK.

Brothers, yes.
Despite all, they still
loved
one another.

The argument,
(no yelling),
was winding down.

“If you’re about to die,
you might say ‘Oh my God’,”
my uncle argued.
“This shows that there
is someone
up there.”

“Yeah, and you might say,
‘Goddamn’,”
my father said.

Sitting on the couch,
dozing,
I smiled to myself
in the shadows.

My father won that
argument,
By Jove.