psalm 101
when i close my eyes i hear
two birds and three
underground things.
nothing perfect
when you
look at us do not look
toward our meat or hands : we swell
and jut : we unravel
just before snow. i go
nicked and wild, i look toward ceilings
and dream of falling.
nothing clings to me, nothing
sings.
to me.
psalm 3
the ants have increased.
thick black wobbly lines, stove to
cabinet to floor
when i sleep i dream
the ten thousand dreams, circle
of cheekbone and teeth :
i am not afraid of the finer bones
of the human head, nor the dentist’s
troubadour drill
faces broken tiles
psalm 99
you are a foggy
pillar, a smokestack
of grass, a turning
away of red and need and
if we break and look up
we see the cloudy horseheads
and each year throws the same dull paper
onto the fire, codicils of scrap and
symptoms we cannot read
:
invention
psalm 1
do not walk with them
nor sit at the table
but by the trees
the trees plaited by the river
whisked leaves and surface again and again
the wind
sweeps and flowers
Note on the text:
These poems respond to individual psalms from the Book of Psalms, King James Version.
Laura Walker: I am the author of five books of poetry: story (Apogee Press, 2016), Follow–Haswed (Apogee Press, 2012), bird book (Shearsman Books, 2011), rimertown/ an atlas (UC Press, 2008), and swarm lure (Battery Press, 2004); and the chapbook bird book (Albion Books, 2010). I live in Berkeley, California, where I also teach. More information, if you’d like it, is available at www.laura-walker.com.