Turn my bones over
with Zeke Johnson’s plow.
Cut the earth. Let it bleed
into my dried veins. I offer
my thin skin willingly, Lord,
to your magical needle
and thread. Stitch each flap
of flesh together. Grease
my joints. Socket my hips.
Add organs and muscles, Lord,
sinews and sweat. Print fingertips
and freckles. Polish my well-worn
teeth. Then plant hair
like prairie grass on my head
and in my ears. I want those
who love me to know me.
Gather them together, Lord,
as soon as you can.
Scott Hales lives and writes in Utah. His poetry collection Hemingway in Paradise and Other Mormon Poems was nominated for the 2022 Association for Mormon Letters’s poetry award, but it didn’t win. You can find more of his writing in Wayfare, Inscape, Irreantum, BYU Studies, Vita Poetica, and a few other places online.
