Emanuel AME Church, Charleston, South Carolina
All the ways we will startle at doors
letting in minutes and closing our eyes to the floor, shaking
our voices to heated sentences that stretch
in their continuous testament. Slowly getting on
with the Bible right and familiar. Prayers
overtaking us, and Judgment
Day like a swaddling. For now, our tongues hold the cost
of awe and all that’s left to learn.
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Lauren Camp is the author of three books, most recently One Hundred Hungers, winner of the Dorset Prize (Tupelo Press, 2016). Her poems have appeared in New England Review, Poetry International, At Length, Beloit Poetry Journal and as a Poem-a-Day for Poets.org. Other literary honors include the Margaret Randall Poetry Prize, the Anna Davidson Rosenberg Award, and a Black Earth Institute Fellowship.
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