Hadassah

Prayer swelled my stomach, a white smoke
Charring wide chalk satiety over the walls
Of my larynx, a graffiti dessert,
And I walked in thirst. The women
That I’d gathered as empty pottery,
Vessels around a droughted well
Never rose, the yeast impetus of their souls
Dormant, hungering. Our mouths
All dangled gaping from a single golden stick,
Felt the metal pry our teeth loose
As the day warmed and waned
And the gold became meat became corn.

We lost our tongues in the sand
Felt scorpion stings pierce our tonsils
And string them up as pearls
Around a dying neck, fingered their curves
To keep conscious of our belly walnuts
Hardening in the sun behind the silk
Falling like tropics bridges
Between asymmetrical monolith knees.

When the water came, I felt it harden
Pink and selfish between my earthbound eyes,
And in my throat steamed a wet suspicion
Quiet and wholly unholy.