Kameryn Alexa Carter

from ELEVEN ADDRESSES TO THE LORD

Lord, this languish is dedicated to the project of my salivation—
long hungry, long been weary, so long the chimeras visit me
in sleep—I spin Blessed Assurance from my lips hoping for alchemy,
knowing nothing is sure, knowing there is not enough blessèd oil
in the world to make me gold. Even as I hope you are waiting to call
me, even as I know a railroad is one sort of room, even as I have tried
and failed to make a home in your heel—I’ve no friend like you, lord,
only your feet to cleanse that I should make a home in you—I
will never touch that hem—sheared edge underturned—this flesh
never anointed enough to summon the sun—lord: I am gall— 
headsick hymned to death—at every cock’s crow O come—keep
me in thy bosom, even as I know a line is one sort of broken
talus, that this valediction is another sort of room—that I
could make a home in it—amen. Amen.

KAMERYN ALEXA CARTER is a Black poet and assemblagist. She has a BA in English with a concentration in Literary Studies from DePaul University. Her work appears in LETTERS, phoebe, Puerto del Sol, and Spoon River Poetry Review.