Contents
I
Sonnet for the Barbed Wire Wrapped around This Book
All the Bones at the Bottom of the Rio Grande
Portrait of the Dalmatian That Bit My Mother
My Father in the ICU
Traveler but I Scarcely Ever Listened
When the Crows Came
Saint Toribio Romo of Guadalajara Finally Stopped Praying
Triptych Just before Mass
Barnburner
Mostly I’d Like to Be a Spiderweb
II
Parable about Changing My Name + an Elegy
It’s Easy to Become King of a Place No One Wants to Live in
Shades of Red
Six Ecclesiastical Love Songs
Poem with the Head of Homer in It
The Mouse Speaks
If a Star, Break This Elegy into Its Blossoming Fingers
Incident Number to Be Determined
Forgive Yourself for Seeing It Wrong
III
Sonnet River
Self-Portrait as Headless John the Baptist Hitchhiking
Love, Circular Saw Blade
After Us, the Flood
Noah’s Nameless Wife Sees a Golden Bust of Joan of Arc
As Long as You Want
Poem Ending with Abraham’s Suffering
Ode
IV
You Called Me Castaway and I Called You
Palinode, or Lullaby with Light and Dark
Novenas
Noah’s Nameless Wife Takes Inventory
You Are Counting the Waves
All That Dazzling Dawn Has Put Asunder: You Gather a Lamb
Poem with Three Names of God + a Promise to Myself
Notes
Acknowledgments