Marc Alan Di Martino

Amateur Atheists

We play at not believing much in God
declare man-made religion obsolete
and not much fun, a hoax, a bitter fraud,
the trapdoor of the cynical elite.

From church and synagogue we ban ourselves
the way we might have been banned ages hence
for unbelief in angels, hell or elves.
We pray for reason, patience, common sense.

We love what’s best in man and woman, too;
no tribal ideologies for us —
the world is big enough for me and you.

But when the sufferings of Job set in
we’ll need someone to spar with, kvetch and fuss,
then rediscover God beneath our skin.

Marc Alan Di Martino is a poet and translator whose books include Day Lasts Forever: Selected Poems of Mario dell’Arco (World Poetry, 2024 – Winner of the 2025 Joseph Tusiani Italian Translation Prize & 2025 PEN Award for Poetry in Translation finalist), Love Poem with Pomegranate (Ghost City, 2023), Still Life with City (Pski’s Porch, 2022) and Unburial (Kelsay, 2019). His poems and translations appear in Apple Valley Review, Bad Lilies, The Shore and many other journals and anthologies. His work has been nominated for the Pushcart Prize, Best of the Net and Best Literary Translations 2027. Currently a reader for Baltimore Review, he lives in Italy.