Mrs. Buddha Calls on Mrs. God by Patricia McMillen

Mrs. Buddha Calls on Mrs. God

by Patricia McMillen

published in New Ohio Review, 2000

Tea or coffee? asks Mrs. God, hopeful

for an excuse to fire up her brand-new

espresso machine, a gift from Mr. God

last Christmas (he said it was from Santa,

their little joke). Mrs. Buddha can’t

decide. So many ways to burn water!

she marvels, wondering if it’s polite

to marvel, here in Heaven. Certainly

it would be bad form back in Nirvana

but everything’s so different here—why,

outside the front gate, di...