Luke Hankins is a poet, editor, and founder of Orison Books, a publishing
company committed to supporting voices at the growing edges of spirituality and
literature. In his first poetry collection Weak Devotions
One sonnet can imbue a history
With upright strength when shouted prose demands
It bow to fear or riches. Emma writes
Though publishers refuse her name in print,
Though civil rights do not
Houses painted like the inside of fruit.
Mango, guava,
papaya with beady eyes.
Houses with roofs like ski hats.
Casas in flaming hues.
Casa with lawns like sloppy husbands
or gated and manicured,
And in the marshy field that drinks some of
this river, legs muffed in shifting steam,
pale geese negotiate and wrangle, preen
and complain, beaks the black of a leather glove
and gauntlets
