My God, My Government & Service Assessment Summary: Overview

by Lauren Davis 

My God, My Government

Christ said no more water
and yet water.

The government said no crime
and yet, the water thieves.

Where have they taken my sheets,
my sketches, my loose beads.

In what corner of what dump
do they rot, open to a weak sun.

That star, it does nothing.
It has no say over rain.

I cannot count all the lies
on two hands. The Good Book

deceives. We go back to the first
Earth. Darkness and deep ocean.

My county parson, believe me,
I am baptized the same

as these gone children,
mouths stuffed with rivers into wine.

Service Assessment Summary: Overview 

rains fell from 56 deaths
the path from coastal threats

the three-river warning
the flood crest and consequences

high danger began

all hours          back and forth
to take             to emerge

from rainfall Floyd unfolded

Lauren Davis is the author of Each Wild Thing’s Consent (Poetry Wolf Press). She holds an MFA from the Bennington Writing Seminars, and her poetry and prose can be found in publications such as Prairie Schooner, Spillway, Empty Mirror and Lunch Ticket. Davis teaches at The Writers’ Workshoppe in Port Townsend, Washington, and she works as an editor at The Tishman Review.