by Denny Temple

“And the Sabeans fell upon them, and took them away; yea, they have slain the servants with the edge of the sword; and I only am escaped alone to tell thee” ( Job 1:15 KJV).

Where do I find the book for the servants

condemned as a lesson for Job?

I want to read

their verse, instead.

Not the words for the faithful—

I seek the book for the workers

put down in the field

as a wager—

in a footnote

never sermon’d—

while nearby, the Devil and God

played grab ass with their boss in a tent

just to make

that white man curse.

What did the men say

when they rose and saw

their Gardener, laboring hard

to weed the fig

but leave the corn?

Where is this lost verse for the damned,

hung on the vine for the saved who share not

of their fruit to the gentile or gay—

these souls to be bet, but never to win—

For theirs is the book

I wish to read.