Religious Roundtable: A Place Setting

His studdering Islam
wrapped in a thick Turkish tongue
Is being set like 5 fragile teacups
Near our unwashed feet

His calculated Buddhism
tumbles quantitatively into four tined poetry
placed between breaths
on it's paper thin heel

His mahogany Catholicism
folded as a seven necked swan
sits wingless, its feet buried deep
in scabless wounds

His lidless Protestanism
rolls slowly from a side-chewed cheek
and falls like a paring knife
grazing both palms

His untranslated Judaism
hops one-footed about the room
Until he lays down, a spoon,
Too deep to fully taste

And I am still uncomfortable
waiting among this china and cutlery
for the first taste of meat or wine.