Given What the Text Contains

People form their own beliefs
Within the frames they’re given,
Whatever frames they’re given,

However they believe them.
The grunting black pickup truck,
Its heavyset white driver

Taking green landscape pictures
While it idles, the Zen monk
Raised in a Shinto farmhouse,

The woman crossing herself
To show respect for fairies,
The dentist who is angry

At vaccination mandates,
The Party member’s household
Gods—these are not ironies,

Hypocrisies, cognitive
Dissonances. These are souls
Hunkered down between the lines.