praise God who made fence lizards

that twitch & shed their tails then regrow them like arroyos in spring praise God who designed gingko trees with leaves like Hawaiian skirts dancing praise God who rolled iron ore nuggets & opals like eyes & crimson jasper in sandy washes praise God who bloated rivers that blush at sunset & sidewind like the slippery snakes on their banks praise God who sent glacial rivers out of icemouths churning & frothing like chocolate milk praise God who plotted constant motion in ocean to spit on sitka spruce & sculpt basalt arches a giant crocodile tail trailing out to sea to praise God who concocted this tidal river ebbing back & forth a lover caught between hills she wants & sea she should praise God who built this breathless pair of translucent peach geckos scurrying above me on the ceiling to protect my typing fingers from hungry mosquitoes hush-buzzing praise God

Further Reading

• The Poet's Pilgrimage: A Poetry Review

• What Poems Must You Write

• Poem to be Left Behind

• O Come, O Come, Emmanuel

• In Silence

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James Dewey’s poetry has appeared in Dappled Things, Gulf Coast, New Contrast, North Dakota Quarterly, Off the Coast, Perspectives, Radix, Reformed Journal, and Sojourners. Together with Robbie Taggart, James manages @ComeFollowMePoetry (Instagram) where they publish weekly poems in dialogue with sacred texts. Originally from Boise, Idaho, James currently lives in Virginia.

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