Jackie White
Fury Psalm 12:
Let the airplane praise the Lord as she flirts with the Kingdom
For the airplane bulleted me through blizzard into the belly
Of the funeral parlor. Let the Good Fairy now praise with her heavy bagful of dimes
For the bag is divided like lots among us, for the mother will no longer
Place bets at the family table. Praise with an ice cube for it has kept chill her last beer.
Praise with a lemon peel though its citrus could not offer healing against her head bruise.
Rejoice for the blood angel to look after her, for the skeletal grip
Of the weep-rimmed tires flattening the clods back groundward.
Come forth with an exit sign so that all those entering will know the way out,
So that all those exiting will forget the way is in and down.
Come forth with a homebody so that she may humble her red mop on the feet
Of God, and leave with a vagabond so that—so that—so that the ego
Freighted pulse will transcend its rattle, transcend
The toll-pass, the flatbed, the body-scan, and the jetway, and
Bring forth a wheel to cart the dead into paradise
Note: Italicized lines are excerpted from “Ninth Psalm” and “Tenth Psalm”
in Anne Sexton’s "The Death Notebooks"
Jackie K. White is the author of three chapbooks: "Bestiary Charming," "Petal Tearing & Variations," and "Come Clearing." Her poems and translations have appeared in ACM, Bayou, Folio, The Los Angeles Review, Tupelo, and others. Her book of collaborative poems, "The Under Hum," written with Simone Muench, was published in 2024 by Black Lawrence Press.