Bathsheba

Palms I planted
____rose on the slopes
Their fronds
____falling between hillocks
________in the cleft soared skyward

And with each pull of the soapy stuff
____called the eye of a king



Men came and followed in front, behind
____my sopping hair, slapping my calves,
thigh and shin
____shearing the thin sheath
thinking



Of the stone in the sacrosanct ark,
____the dancing thing so thickly
rumored


And when he spoke I answered
____torso sloughing tatter
backbone bound to the mat.



Legs up under bent knees
____my toes fanned my tresses
________root to tip upon his pillows.



Are you clean? he asked. and I:

I am the filth that scrapes
____the grit that tears
________the soul of every man
and makes him new in sin.

Come up to the mount I said,
____Come. Come up. Mount. Come in.



Bring your prayer for the priest
____bound between chains of the breastplate
________shaking, quivering, uttering prophecy



And when he came, gold
____flaming figures rent the air.



Ten days later I sent them back:
____I'm pregnant.
________Kill him.