This poem takes its inspiration from the story of Abraham,
who waited a long time for the fulfillment of God's promise
to him, a son through his wife Sarah.
And then he was told he had to give up Isaac, take
him and sacrifice him.
So this is sort of in the voice of Abraham
at that moment where he draws back his hand
and is ready to make the sacrifice.
This is called "Bound Isaac.
Late, the hour he came to me, a failing, and had nobody
assumed I would have nobody, now and forever, amen.
He was an agreeable boy, straight toothed, fair,
a glinting countenance.
As the waiting had been a test, as the clarity
of irrefutable heaven had been withheld.
And had nobody arrived in those last months,
this little pinch of salt and this cold dwelling were all.
Then the charge of my soul would be lost,
and my voice, too, pass into dust.
And I would say, great is the dust.
Take me into the dark, into the dark and lovely void.
Having no fortune to wager, I'd wager.
Then, given the increase, then, given the seed and limb,
what demand it were to accept such intimacy.
The worse to wave, chest of bronze,
the lift and fall of his likeness,
his lips, his uncovered loins.
The incense of newly turned fields was everywhere,
the dew upon recent blades.
And I perceived the god of abandon.
Tense in the space between his passive body, his body,
and the boundless reach.