by J. S. Absher
When avid divas and tonsured primates, evangelical Davids psalming before the Lord, gandy dancers straight time rain or shine paid weekly, fray-cuffed clerks, grads of Princeton and Barbizon Beauty, horse-, brew- and web masters, sad copy writers open wallet and purse; empty out their fanny- and back-packs; divest brief- and make-up cases; stave in casks; crack wall- safes, rifle thumb drives; in dying loose the colon, taste the bile in the duct, salt tears in the lacrimal gland, the dry mouth’s last spit, God will say, No, not enough: as He pulls worm segments from hens’ gullets, and from rumens the cud, so from us He’ll draw compassion from the belly’s inward parts, a burning light from our pitch-dark performances; from grave and urn remake broken lives until lies are untold, the murdered re- born, the stolen restored, regretted days made holy as sun-drenched Sabbaths, grieving parents comforted, amor always fidelis, false gods’ falser politicos rejected, our weaknesses transformed praising His name, and even envy weeps in joy of it all—the night settling in, the mallards sleeping on one leg, the drone of semis climbing the grade out of town hauling repentant prayers, the freight of our holy commerce
J. S. Absher is a poet and independent scholar. His first full-length book of poetry, Mouth Work (St. Andrews University Press) won the 2015 Lena Shull Competition of the North Carolina Poetry Society. His second full-length collection, Skating Rough Ground, is scheduled to appear next year. Chapbooks are Night Weather (Cynosura, 2010) and The Burial of Anyce Shepherd (Main Street Rag, 2006). Absher is also preparing three books focusing on North Carolina and Southern US history, two of which (Love Letters of a Mississippi Lawyer and My Own Life, or A Deserted Wife) were published this year. He lives in Raleigh, NC, with his wife, Patti. Website: www.js-absher-poetry.com