There is a writing desk hunched like an ox
beside the bed they put him in. He asks
to go outside, and carried to the yard
he spends an hour beneath an olive tree
watching a novice build a wall from stones,
the young man’s tonsure still a little pink,
his soft hands chaffing red in cold, dry wind.
He thinks, None other than thyself, my Lord.
And then to prayer, a cup of wine, more prayer,
and rest, of sorts, if not a solid sleep.
In bed he thinks again about that wall,
the silent novice picking up a stone,
putting a stone back down, and doing both
as if preparing for a journey.
Benjamin Myers is a former Poet Laureate of Oklahoma and is the author of three books of poetry, including most recently Black Sunday (Lamar University Press). His poems have appeared in Image, The Yale Review, Rattle, 32 Poems, and many other places. He has written essays for many prominent venues, including First Things, The Gospel Coalition, The American Conservative, and Oklahoma Today. His first book of nonfiction, A Poetics of Orthodoxy, was recently published by Cascade Books. Myers teaches at Oklahoma Baptist University, and lives in Chandler, OK, with his wife and their three children.
