So Call it Grace
The first plea-
sure was,
someday, a man
amen a boy be-
fore this boy
without form
yet here god-
send said god—
send me an-
other portion
of sky ’ipelíikt
turns to bruise
pressed to our
skin now skinn-
-ed touch us
into extinction
where we are a-
live, so say it:
live—no out-
live any god
salvaged by
the image a-
flame trapped
in the night
of the throat
like a gun-
lit glimmer
in a room sh-
redded with
our pleas-
ure.
Copyright © 2020 by Michael Wasson. Originally published in Poem-a-Day on December 18, 2020, by the Academy of American Poets.