some psalms

31:9

at bright center night
near of burning things
and you on the stairs
the bees too   the songs
sorrow and swelling
and yea though I walk
have lord mercy on me
my eye also my throat
and my belly  your voice
in my palm   my heaven
my balm

31:12

I am a dread to my friends
bright night I walk streets
barefoot   I am animal
in the city   am shame
in a ballcap   the neighbors
pretend not to know me
and they don’t

73:15

like water I spill out like
water you run me until
I am clear   I am never clear
in darkness you place
your finger inside the glass
that holds me  gulp me
at the sink   your thin wrist
to shut the faucet   storm
swarming   still parched

Nicole Callihan writes poems and stories. Her work has appeared in Tin House, Copper Nickel, Painted Bride Quarterly, The American Poetry Review, and as a Poem-a-Day selection from the Academy of American Poets. Her latest poetry collection, ELSEWHERE, a collaboration with Zoë Ryder White, won the 2019 Sixth Finch Chapbook Prize and was published in March 2020. Find out more at www.nicolecallihan.com