Scattered at Sea by Amy Gerstler

Author:Amy Gerstler [Gerstler, Amy]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: American, Poetry, General
ISBN: 9780698183308
Google: gO-oBAAAQBAJ
Publisher: Penguin
Published: 2015-05-26T21:04:09+00:00

ELIJAH, DEAD PROPHET, ROAMS THE EARTH

judgmental and zealous

his guts rubble

his beard a pale exhalation

a version of Elijah

(how we like to taste his name!)

appears in the Qur’an

and on this particular holiday

Elijah’s invited inside

Jews’ doors propped open

cups of wine placed

on crocheted tablecloths

for his spirit to drink

tonight Elijah prowls the house

of a man widowed twice

rifles the sleeping family’s

belongings: letters and bills

schoolbooks and shoes

he examines their trash

coffee grounds orange peels

an empty Band-Aid tin

the widower and sons snore

their dog lifts her head

drums her tail and smiles at Elijah

the youngest boy wakes convinced

something sat astride him all night

whispering about being fed

by ravens in a cave

when the boy rises he feels sick

as if an organ had been removed

while he slept but after some milk

after worried inquiries from Dad

the boy shakes off his malaise and

when he thinks no one is looking

the widower chugs Elijah’s wine

no sense letting it go to waste

it tastes like dirt from the cellar floor

like tree bark like the inside

of a woman’s mouth

Elijah lived a mysterious life

he raised the dead

brought fire from the sky

foretold people’s fates

was taken up in a whirlwind

and reached the quiet stars

whose weariness it is said

pervades all creation

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