Philip Metres: Pick of the Week [ed. Terence Winch]

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Plague Psalm 90

 

Loss, you have been our regent,

Refusing the refugees
                                     you sent.

You turn hummingbirds to dirt

and feed humans
                       to earth.

 

You wipe out the watchers

In the night of your butcher.

 

Truly we’re boxed in an annex

Of the mansion
                      of your text.

 

By your annotation
                                  we’re smashed,

Filled with the alphabet of wrath.

For the annals of our days

Will be washed away.

 

May we reside
                        in the skies

of others’ eyes.

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Philip Metres has written twelve books, including Fugitive/Refuge (2024) and Shrapnel Maps (2020). Winner of three Arab American Book Awards and a Guggenheim, he is professor of English and director of the Peace, Justice, and Human Rights program at John Carroll University.

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                                     Mohammad Murad Obeidi, 5 Gigabytes of My Memory. Mixed media on canvas, 2011.

Comments

[Grace Cavalieri]

Well I had known of him but now know him. Thank you for this rasping, strangely uplifting, prayer.

[Clarinda]

If only I could have written any lines as powerful as “in the annals of your wrath. “

[Denise Duhamel]

Terrific! A poem of grace.

[Sr. Leslie]

Yes…in a few words, Philip captures the faces of all the refugees flowing by…a beautiful and powerful prayer…Thank you Philip…thank you Terence….

[Terence Winch]

Thanks, Leslie, as always.

[Eileen Reich]

This is a beautiful and powerful poem.

[Patricia Spears Jones]

fine poem from a most excellent poet and as we all know psalms are hard to write. This is one of the best.

[Richard Giannoe]

Yes, dust is what we are made of and will return to. The psalmist of divine anger watches over us.