Genesis 16 I stumble      in desperate      headlong flightfrom the sharp bite      of a woman     emptyof what her god has promised      enviousof what seems to be

Judges 13:18 I was out in the field     where the wheatgrows golden     in the heat of the afternoon sunwhen the grain parted     & you came

by Debra L. Freeberg What happens at the end of life to the stored treasures of knowledge and memory? To the books of language fruit

after Henri Nouwen’s studyof Rembrandt’s paintingof Christ’s parable I look at the handsembracing            clutching               caressing                 the hands I can only seebecause Rembrandt saw them

for the Sons of Korah (Psalm 84) Swallows swoop across the courtyard well above the notice of those alonefacing stone robed in black They flit

Bright May—but Sober, somber, alone. Scored By razored circumstance. Emptied. So retreating To the soothing shade of the sweet gum tree, A few pieces of