Her/Hymn

She could break a mountain with a sigh

And bend time like a snake coiling around the wrist and upper arm of a belly dancer

She could dry up the ocean with a look

And twist my worming veins around my heart like barbed wire stuck in the flesh of a deer that I saw on the side of the road bleeding out

I should find my way back home

But she will sneak up behind me and trace the miles with chalk like the outline of a murder victim

I should make her something nice and shiny

But all I can conjure up this rotten mass of sounds and shapes and little larvae crawling out my ears as my brain drains out of my nose

I'm still trying to get home, and fall before her alter

Steady on, hold fast, the road gets narrow up ahead

Hold fast, steady on, the world ends just over that hill

Steady on, hold fast, the dirt gets a little sticky around here

Hold fast, steady on, the tree all look lonely and sad out here

I'm still trying to come home, and fall before her alter

She could plant an orchard with her hands

And spin webs like silk white linen embroidered with one liners and trivia facts

She could skin a horse with her mouth

And sharpen sticks with the stones she gathered from the river, like a shepherd boy off to kill giants

She could speak to the mud with her feet

And guide the little ones to safety and warmth and good clean beds with high thread count sheets

She could pluck a star from the sky with a wink

And settle the storm like Jesus walking on the water, even as I take my eyes away from her face