Tell me again of the lepers who learn                  to shed their disastrous skinby eating the meat of vipers: somethingtransmutable in the flesh. The ancients                                      spent lifetimes consideringthe resurrection of irretrievableparts:                  wolf-devoured flank, eyesof martyrs pecked clean in a village square.                                                                    Tell me againabout the new heaven and the new earth,when the bear returns an unblemished armto its faithful socket, when mountains                  open their mouths to receiveconduits and I-beams and engagement diamondsand the fish ladders the rivers will give up                                      with their dams when the earthis made new.                                      Tell me the formulafor feeling whole again                  after tragedy. The equation for how much timeI needed after saying no                                       before I’d tell you yes.Tell me I’ll never be alone, even when I wantto be alone.