_55. Bodies of Water

What floats
this close to shore
exulted by the viridian tide?
Some mossy detritus
(dead animal? driftwood?
all organic,
all party to decomposition)
–and sometimes my body a buoy
on the waves.

Lord,
when you shine down
from the far side of thunderclouds
in your lieutenant shafts of light

let me not neglect
to hide my face.

Let me heed the word
braided in rays
before the keen pebbles of sunlight
on the water
dazzle and drown me,

the unincorporated command
instructing the body’s mirror:
reflect.