And he took the fire in his hands and the knife–Genesis 22:6 The beasts walk single file, saying hallelujah, eating bones. The woodsmen with their

Ages ago I left a small town lifesearching for something I lost wanderingin confining predictability.Big city answers filled my small town soul. Glutted with certainties

The world spins and staggersWe grab the side hold the mastHoping this storm is not all we will ever beTime’s torrents toss us wavewardAs skies

You, pod of the poorthe famished, the saintly, the destitute—of those besieged and those diseasedof St. John in his itchy wrap of hide andfur, wild-haired

Did you give a nameto your longing?Did you set out knowing what you’d buywith your bindle full of gold?Was it the blinking women, the sweeter

I clamber up the brick wall.Fingers sink into the cracks of caulkuntil my hands reach leaded frames of glass.Stretching myself across the puzzle piecesof bright

And the angel said unto thee, Go thouinto your garden and plant Creeping Jenny, alyssum, Sweet Woodruff to crawl acrossthe earth, and herbs to bring

How had he known to callscarlet tanagers scarlet or indigo buntingsindigo? Yet the wordswere so fitting he saw when he sketchedthe bow he’d witnessed after

The only waywewill bethe same at the lastwill be to go homeand sleep. We must notmake the maquette.