Bone Map: Poems by Sara Johnson Martha Collins

Author:Sara Johnson, Martha Collins [Johnson, Sara Eliza; Collins, Martha]
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781571319197
Publisher: Perseus Books, LLC

Sea Psalm

Frail is our vessel, and the ocean is wide

ST. AUGUSTINE

Lord, this is not your world. I am not yours

but also not mine. Not your passenger.

Not your saint at the helm, the machinery

of my hands turning like clocks.

Not your reliquary. Not your daughter

in oilskins, hauling up the iron cross

to follow the directional light. Water slinks

wolfish in my wake, foam gathering

like shorn light—the hours pulled under.

Look there: a fish flails on the deck, halved

into a scaled book, its milk and blood

spilled for cockroaches and birds. Look

down: my chest is opened, the wind plucks

its thin, blue notes. Soon this ocean

will rise, will come pouring into my ears,

my throat, will tear the bones from my hands

and the boneless fish of this tongue

from my mouth. Lord, when my blood

reaches the city, it will be the water

of the river they bring to their mouths

and the name they thank will be yours.

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