I have made mutinies out of words –
tried for prayer: heard as heresy: pushed
off of a steeple: turned into an altar:
I am both the fire and the flood
But I love me enough / to burn the hair:
an offering / for the years spent wandering
the desert void / an investment for the day
I believe in prayer again: then / I’ll be singing
I laid my skull on the sanctuary floor –
asked for nothing but a Pictionary coup: here is
the chopping block: the sacrificial ceremony:
I am both the Abraham and the Isaac.
I love me enough / to raise my chin for the blade
to slaughter with sandpaper / the skin I was given
to break the covenant / to rend the veil
to make the hymn pliant / again:
I believe in the power: mine.
I believe in the blood: mine.
