Jake's Flea Market

your offering of wine   poured
out the window into mud

return by the lane through the wheatfield

with hands taken
sand skinned from the plow   
pull straws

with fingers taken
callous skinned from the sickle
weave a basket

return to the vineyard

from the grapevine
with a knife sharpened on a field stone   
cut a cluster

drop it in the basket 
like a baptist’s head

return to the temple

the basket is the sacrifice

put it in the hand 
of dumuzi the shepherd   
the husband   the priest who sits
cross legged on the floor

plays a flute that charms
all the snakes in the chamber

ask that he put the basket in the 
hand of the goddess inanna

who dances   belly bared
and bared her cloven breast   
her shoulders   her arms

the skirt of silk 
from her hips it shivers
like shook foil

her hand is the altar