[Circumcise my heart, o genderqueer God.]

after John Donne’s “Batter my heart, three-person’d God”
and Meg Day’s “Batter My Heart, Transgender’d God”

Circumcise my heart, o genderqueer God.
If clothes make the man, then rend me. I map
my kinship in letters. Dear, do take heed
of the sound of the shofar. Flagellate
me, leek-handed. The new start I know
is a fish head, a pomegranate, bees’
vomit. Honey my throat that I may exalt
your throne of lovingkindness, that I may pass
beneath your staff as a sheep to shepherd.
Tell me who by water & who & who
by a red scarf hanging from a doorknob?
If angels tremble, then what can mortals
do? I see the circled rot in apples’ green,
lips pasted shut & dates by others swallowed.

Elana Lev Friedland exists. They are the winner of Redivider’s 2019 Blurred Genre contest and a finalist in Breakwater Review’s 2020 Peseroff Prize in poetry. Their work appears in Cartridge Lit, Anomaly, Salt Hill, The Rumpus, Black Warrior Review, and elsewhere. Originally from Skokie, IL, they currently live. Find them online at www.elanalevfriedland.com.