Invocation by Christopher Bakken

Sing in me a dithyramb to salt,
epics of cardamom and sage.

Cypress trees, grow taller please.
Snails, commence your racing.

Let us stoke delicious bonfires
and jig unbridled every night

on the opium sands of Dahab.
Let the cats of Sinai have their fish.

May scorpions find their blue shadows.
May the owls of blasphemy roost.

Hymn for the pelvis, hymn for the brow.
Hymn for the nobility of bread.

Loose, royal parrots from your cages.
Loose, weeping peacocks to the trees.

Sing in me of tomorrow’s flung doors.
Sing as we depart small houses at last.

Christopher Bakken is the author of three books of poetry, most recently Eternity & Oranges (Pitt Poetry, 2016), as well as the culinary memoir Honey, Olives, Octopus (Univ. of California, 2013). He is director of Writing Workshops in Greece and he teaches at Allegheny College.