Emma Bolden

Psalm of the Unclean

In the center of her trembling I found the hare
furred & frightened by the power of these human
hands. 
My neighbor says that when I walk 
through the valley of fever I should stop 
my self 
in its trembling & take instead the hand
of a God who waits for me to believe in him 
as the power 
that guides me. I tell her thank you. I tell her yes, I do
believe. & I do believe
in the way the hare believes 
my hands will & will 
not 
harm her. Things fall. Apart from the bush
stands its burning. When God speaks
he uses a tongue that licks
cities high & wild with a gold that turns
into ashes, into the language of the lion
whose death invites bees to glory
its skull with honey. 
The hare
who clambers up the cliff to find 
a higher safety may 
find instead the falcon’s claws.
I walk through 
the valley where shadow waits
without warning to burst
into birdcall, to rustle 
with flame.

Emma Bolden is the author of House Is an Enigma (Southeast Missouri State), medi(t)ations (Noctuary), and Maleficae (GenPop). The recipient of an NEA Fellowship, her work has appeared in The Norton Introduction to Literature, The Best American Poetry, and such journals as the Mississippi Review, The Rumpus, StoryQuarterly, Prairie Schooner, New Madrid, TriQuarterly, Shenandoah, and the Greensboro Review. She serves as associate editor-in-chief for Tupelo Quarterly. Visit her online at emmabolden.com.