Looking for the Kingdom of God

Looking for the Kingdom of God

Ryan Keating

I’m looking for the kingdom
in July early morning haze
so I can live in it balancing

my favorite mug filled with coffee
in my left hand and in my right
the steering wheel of a black

Volkswagen freshly painted
after enough years of riding
through this ancient dust and gravel.

We’re on our way to my daughter
Ruby‘s drivers license test.
She’s studying the rules

I’m navigating the roads
trying to find the test location
and listening to poetry

podcasts and her questions
whose answers I sometimes know.
We’re finding it together

in the beauty of things made new,
eventually. I take her hand
for a moment before we walk in.

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Ryan Keating
Poet & Pastor

Ryan is a writer, pastor, and winemaker on the Mediterranean island of Cyprus. His work can be found in publications such as Saint Katherine Review, Ekstasis Magazine, Amethyst Review, Macrina Magazine, Fathom, Dreich, Vocivia, and Miras Dergi, where he is a regular contributor in English and Turkish.

Photography by Redd F