Issue Twenty-Five - Winter 2015

Finding Faith in a College Town

By William Aarnes

The things one can discover
opening a garage door—

this Sunday morning
it’s that a variety of condoms

is sold as formal wear.
“Tuxedo,” the wrappers read,

“PREMIUM . . . BLACK . . . FLARED.”
Whoever scattered these

—there must be—dozens
of unwrapped condoms

over our yard and driveway
must have been drunk enough

with faith, hope and love
to believe whoever he was with

or without
might succumb

to such despairing zeal.

Copyright 2015 Aarnes

William Aarnes has published two collections with Ninety-Six Press—Learning to Dance (1991) and Predicaments (2001). His work has appeared in such magazines as Poetry and The Seneca Review. Recent poems have has appeared in Gravel and Field.

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