My collection of poetry, Homeless God, is now available for purchase. You can choose from two versions: the original, and the illustrated. The illustrated costs a bit more, but features four high-quality prints of visual pieces that I commissioned for exhibition at the chapbook’s premiere in December 2019.
Californios Press is proud to present Homeless God, a new chapbook of poems by Phillip Aijian. In these poems, Aijian explores people on the edges of society: refugees, prisoners, panhandlers, and more. Aijian asks his readers to reckon with the often grim selfishness that can blind our eyes to the dignity and divinity in every seeming stranger.
-Timothy Bartel, Californios Press
Homeless God
I. Anaheim, CA - Galilee
Jesus has gotten fat.
He spends too much
time there by the on-ramp
on the overpass where,
evidently, strangers are
prone to be generous
as they wait to get on to the 5.
A McDonald’s is just down the street.
I come this way every day,
but I’ve never see him eating.
I sometimes see a cup
with the golden arches at his feet.
It has to be the McDonald’s.
And the standing around.
With all the time he has,
you’d think he’d come
up with a new sign;
try slightly better lettering.
The message is barely legible—
as if he wanted you to struggle
a bit to read it. As if he wanted
to make you look twice.
And I do.
Bless the poor.