Ekphrastic Riff

“People are such shit!” my sister screamed as she overarmed her phone against the wall.
“There’s just so much of  the good stuff to go around, you know” said her boyfriend the Archangel Gabriel, voice muffled by his wings as, lantern raised, he peered into the fridge. She bitterly resented being lectured, by immortals most of all, and I hated it when he and she fought.
“He only created so much soul back then you know, omnipotent or otherwise, no one  could have anticipated the demand” said Gabe (as we called him around the house). With fierce hand gestures and a scalding voice my sister went on and on about whatever.
All I could hear was Laurie Anderson singing:
“oh Daddy Daddy, it was just like you said
now [that] the living out number the dead”.

by-Doug Mathewson