Dan Lukiv

Book II-Joshua to Esther, poetry Dan Lukiv

An excerpt, a poem based on Esther chapter five // A (thorny) burnet and caper, / Acanthus, box- and hawthorn, / A walking source of injury, / With thistle hands, and thorns / For hair upon his arms and legs / As if he were a creature before / Men breathed, like the many / Frozen in time in rock layers / That little chisels chip away at. / How irregular his fingers look, / Reaching for flesh to embrace, / How odd the protrusions of round / And cylindrical heads upon his scalp, / That bloom into soft, silky white, / Yellow and purple flowers that / Reflect goodness but turn brown / And die. Adam found the likes of you / Outside Eden protected by cherubs / And the deadly flaming sword. / Haman the bush, the hedge, good / Food for camels, asses, and goats, / See, there you go, rolling along / The howling wilderness, / Rolling, gone.