“God’s Work, Women’s Work” by Abby Horowitz (fiction, ’15)

An excerpt from “God’s Work, Women’s Work” by Abby Horowitz (fiction, ’15) published at Waxwing:

God’s Work, Women’s Work

God pulls on a pair of latex gloves, the points of His fingernails poking sharply at the ends.

God moves like a lover, rolling down the comforter, rolling up the sleeping woman’s shirt. God peels off her underwear. God spreads her legs apart. Then, closing His long-lashed eyes, God blows a mighty breath into His cupped hands. The curtains tremble with the air that overspills His grasp, the woman stirs a little in the breeze.

God bends down above His target until He’s so close that His lashes brush the insides of the woman’s thighs. Then He opens the woman with His gloved pinky, and guides His handful of divine air inside.

God says, “Let there be —” and names the child who then begins to grow.

The woman sighs a little in her sleep, and God sighs with her, pleased with His labor. He tugs off His latex gloves and cocks His ear towards the bed, listening for the whispers of the new creation growing and singing God’s name.

Weeks later, the angel comes to Him in tears with the report: that the woman, at the doctor’s office — how there was silence where the heartbeat of God’s creation should have been.

God’s face turns dark. God tries to remember the woman over whom the angel cries. God tries and tries. The Gods pulls up his suspenders and heads back down to work. […continue reading here]