Duane Michals: Shopping with mother

When I was a little boy, my mother often took me shopping with her. Our last stop was always Cox's dress shop. She would sit me down in a chair surrounded by our purchases and say, "Sit there, I'll be right back." Then off she would vanish into the dress racks. For the first five minutes I was relieved just to be seated and rest, but then an anxiety began to grow within me that she would never return.

In 1932, God dropped me off on this planet and said, "Sit there, I'll be right back." Well, I have been sitting here for fifty years now, and the bastard hasn't returned. For all I know He is off on Andromeda trying on dresses and has forgotten about me. And I know that I have been abandoned, and he will never come back.