'Thirteen Ways of Looking at My Mother's Bible'

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Thirteen Ways of Looking at My Mother's Bible
	after Wallace Stevens
I
On her bedside table
There were two devotionals that stayed
One Bible that moved with her
II
There was another Bible beside her kitchen table
A third by her computer
Three translations
III
Her Bible left the house when she rained Scripture
On thirsty women on Monday nights
IV
A woman and God’s law of love
Are one
Father, Son, and Holy Spirit
Are one
V
I do not know which she preferred
The color of highlighters
Or the boldness of pen
The shy insistence of pencil
Marking a star
VI
Cancer came to her
Went, returned
His precepts went with her to new rooms
Pages turning
Wings rising
VII
O you, her family,
Why do you not treasure each of her Bibles?
Do you not want to see her prayers
For you in the margins?
Scribbles on the sand
VIII
I have a Bible app
And a Missal with daily readings
But I have a real Bible
That travels with me
To Adoration
IX
When she died
I lined all her Bibles
On my bookshelf
X
I read my Bible in the dark
Under moonlight
Or in a chapel
Lit only by candles
XI
She has never been to my house
Or my church
Never heard me sing
Settings of the Psalms
Those ancient songs in her Bible –
Their decrees keep me
XII
It is July
I have not opened any Bible
XIII
Before sunrise
It is hot
And it will get hotter
Her Bible waits
On my bedside table