Poetry Pick

BETHEL ON THE BEACH Perseid Meteors, 2001 by Richard Arnold British Columbia, Canada

Patiently awaiting the vision, my head on a log, I imagine, Jacob, that I hear you scoff - Old desert dreamer, whose pillow was a rock - At how the thirty centuries have turned us soft. In goatskins you gobbled Canaan's dusty miles, An ironwood club to whack the wolves and lions, Wore only an inch of callus on your soles, Picked fig seeds from your teeth with lizard bones. You'd laugh at my latte, beach shoes, ten-dollar starchart To whack mosquitoes, my designer flashlight. But I've one thing on you, old patriarch: I get my dream and never close my eyes - All night, angel after searing angel, shot Down a silver ladder from a god.

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