A Modern Psalm

I am born
      whole from the dead.
The pieces that made me,
      names
In water
      sinking
Silt blankets:
      Clay: creek,
Ocean's
      bottom.

Summer the wadi
      sniffs.
Naked leaflets
      shiver the wind.
Broad leaf curl
      open-palmed
Now basks. Now
      roots
Stretch through,
      snatch fire.


© Dan Goorevitch, 2003