Dan Lukiv

Give Thanks to Jehovah, poetry Dan Lukiv

An excerpt, a poem based on chapter 107 of Psalms // His face, awash with / Swirling waters- / A roaring stampede / Of froth; its / Belly full of fish- / Disappears into his heart, // And the dryness of another / Day reveals sand; / His face, now a desert, / A paradise of scorpions / And thin tufts of grass, / Boasts the odd dwarf / Juniper or gnarled / Tamarisk. // He has changed / As the moon from full / To new, as the day from / Bright to dark, // And the vineyards along / His temples, and fig trees / That adorn his ears, / Have become places / Of salt, vastlands of produce / Removed, / as age that removes / Vitality from limbs / And life from the eye. // And in his heart, where / Waters find themselves like / Joseph in the pit, // The man he once was has become / A bird without wings.