3:16 [For]
For
who hands o-
ver their on-
ly begot-
ten any-
thing to this
white-teethed world
if god so
loved      I nev-
er knew him
From The Night Angler. Copyright © 2018 by Geffrey Davis. Used with the permission of BOA Editions.
             If this world has made it easy for you 
To imagine the sear of a flame’s flawless mouth
As holy (it only takes one big love
Holding fear’s god-like heat against your life), 
            I’m here to say that you can choose
Dear Mother,
Your early lessons got me to bear the fearful sounds 
that faith can make while clearing its throat. I remember
the hard man who reaped our purpling timothy-grass 
each spring unbuttoning his tanned jacket to show
—after Amanda Shires
Another bird tucks the gray flute of its body 
through a tree’s tangle of dusky branches, and 
the boy at the desk of my heart starts.