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

let it fall 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 nora the wife
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