Long Listed for the 2023 Griffin Poetry Awards

https://griffinpoetryprize.com/press/2023-longlist-announcement/

Outing

     The ceremony took place in the big hall; they

took me down from the sunset, they wrapped me

in a bed sheet, but the wounds appeared on the wall;

people crowded the stairs, demanding that I get

resurrected; I had to remain clear of miracles, so

I hid in the hallway behind the visitors’ overcoats 

and I chewed the pages of old calendars.

     The daybreak looked pale behind the large bottles,

I went out to the street and I kneeled before the first

passerby, “why did you do it?” God asked me, “It’s

the time for my Kingdom, Lord, how could I refuse?”

Then God placed this key in my hand, and now I can

serenely hear the merciless footsteps behind the wall

as I am invisible in every holy icon.    

      I was so desolate that even the street dogs which

barked at me, they now rise to the sky with me.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/1926763564