by Katie Manning
The Book of Sex
all that remains of Exodus
it will be holy
it will be most holy
everything
set up
placed
and set out
placed
and set up
placed
and burned
put up
and offered
placed
between
water
and
washed whenever
lifted from above
set up
and put up
and so
finished
The Book of Mean
all that remains of Nehemiah
the book
was read aloud in the
ear
of the people and
of God
they had not met
the people
were
foreign
and
large
used to
wine and olive oil
musicians and
priests
God
was greatly displeased and threw all
the musicians
at
posts
God
saw people
in fish and
pulled out their hair
and God
even he was
foreign
The Book of Jam
all that remains of Jeremiah
his mother’s name was
daughter
she was
all
anger
in the end
twenty-one years old when he became king
he reigned
eleven years
in the ninth year
on the tenth day of the tenth month
until the eleventh year of
the ninth day of the fourth month
there was no food
the king
set fire to
the poorest people
and all the
dishes
the LORD
was four fingers thick
and hollow
decorated with
pomegranates of bronze
the
king
spoke kindly
of the LORD
and
ate regularly
till the day of his death
KATIE MANNING is the founding Editor-in-Chief of Whale Road Review and an Associate Professor of Writing at Point Loma Nazarene University in San Diego. Her full-length poetry collection, Tasty Other, is the 2016 winner of the Main Street Rag Poetry Book Award. Find her at www.katiemanningpoet.com.
Photo: “Grandma’s Bible” by Andrew Seaman
Psaltery & Lyre 