Psalmwork

from The Notebooks of Korah’s Daughter


17

‘… hide me in the shadow of Your wings’

Wrens rehearse a local song, perch
in acacia native to this landscape.
There are patterns, learning
the birds do before they claim
a call of their clan. I have unlearned
and discarded the elders’ melody.
What I call seamless is the movement
from meeting him on a mountainside
and going home alone, the contour
of his body imprinted on my bare skin
that is never allowed to touch his.
Borders and wholeness are his
territory. Mine is lawless, broken.
Guard me like the pupil of an eye,
...