San Benito

Chip Livingston

the black bird stripped off their feathers
they issued the jubilee of plenary indulgence
in eucharistic communion expressing effects
of anxieties intercessed and intersexed

the black bird stripped off their feathers
and threw themselves into a thicket of thorns
protected by presence of viper and crown
a sacramental medal of uncertain origin

the poison was offered the glass was broken
they issued the jubilee of plenary indulgence
the black bird stripped off their feathers

About This Poem

“‘San Benito’ is part of a collage-portrait series exploring physical and spiritual elements attributed to various figures designated as saints. The black bird’s plural pronoun was a conscious attempt to recognize the holy traditions of our gender-variant, nonconforming, and two-spirit relatives, which kept coming up as I meditated on San Benito’s sacred medal.”
—Chip Livingston

Chip Livingston’s most recent poetry collection is Crow-Blue, Crow-Black (NYQ Books, 2012). He teaches in the low-residency MFA programs at the Institute of American Indian Arts and Regis University. He lives in Montevideo, Uruguay.

Photo credit: Joaquín Olariaga

Poetry by Livingston

Crow-Blue, Crow-Black

(NYQ Books, 2012)

from “Crow” by Abraham Smith

"Some Consequences of the Made Thing" by Dan Beachy-Quick

"Hoktvlwv’s Crow" by Jennifer Foerster

June Guest Editor: D. A. Powell

Thanks to D. A. Powell, author of Repast: Tea, Lunch, and Cocktails (Graywolf Press, 2014), who curated Poem-a-Day this month. Read more about Powell and our guest editors for the year.

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June 18, 2018