Tuesday poem #210 : Laura Walker : psalmody

psalm 84

we fade and lean                                  flesh

                                   

      boxy with yearning

                        sparrows a tumult

                                                                      the rain comes down

                  and a thousand cards lying on the floor              

                                                                                       a thousand cards

psalm 2

we are imagined.

light bounces from the mirror

graying pools across our face         

and all our stories erupt in the same place :

if we look for what’s not repeated

rhizome letters, slant caterpillar’s eye, the

standard tablecloth ashy around the edges

we look and become seen : we are seen and do not know it :

i ask, you are silent, i ask, you are silent, i ask

the others wind their way up the hill

psalm 1

would you choose

to sift away

like a table-book disease

would you bloom

along a street

dust and nooks

what choice you have

sits above the skyline

in a pale blue chair

psalm 8

             a braided moon

             animals under our feet :

psalm 12

i am thinking of faithful

of frail and unanointed

your name a broken door

you are silver     

boiled seven times

a pure thing hung round your neck

like an antidote to fever :

Laura Walker is 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). She lives in Berkeley, California, where she teaches creative writing, battles the varroa mite, and tries to grow tomatoes inappropriate to the climate. More info at laura-walker.com.

the Tuesday poem is curated by rob mclennan