Joshua

JOSHUA

Rattle cup, spill the bones.

Ribs read--digits deciphered. 
 Ossified missives in the living’s leftovers.

Who’s to blame for temptation tasted?

Web of wasted want, plaiting

words in dusty primers, dark closets,

lost battles.

Joshua, don’t damn the demand--what was taken

touches superstition, speaks to suspicion, trembles stones

thrown for the cleromants.

The righteous practice idolatry behind clever curtains.

Nevermind the others; gods choose those

who choose themselves.

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