Picture an emergency room, she told me,
a smattering of students surrounding us.
There are patients that are having heart attacks.
And then there’s one with the flu.
The flu can get worse, I thought, alone.
But I nodded and she continued.
So I wandered through the halls for forty years
and eventually found my divine interpretations
bugs in my skin fluttered brittle fingers
I held the verses close to my chest
(and the whole mountain shuddered)
Salvation tastes dry