Samantha DeFlitch
The Difficulty Is Worthy of Such an Intervention
I keep the fourth watch.
All my eyes, each waiting
eye of my body, eyes
of my hands and the backs
of my hands, and all the eyes
in my throat keep the fourth
watch, which is the holiest
of all the watches. These are
the hours when the Red Sea
opens itself, laughing,
when the darting eyes
on my tongue reveal the name
of the youngest blade of grass
present at the birth of the Lord.
At 5:57 pre-dawn: when the
waked deer appears and speaks
to me in the voice of my father.
I, made up entirely of eyes and
duty, cannot hear his words,
so the deer grows and grows until
this forest is made wholly of deer
and a thousand eyes. At last,
morning-sun lights my father’s face.
I prophesy: I see pride. Alleluia, alleluia.
All my eyes, each waiting
eye of my body, eyes
of my hands and the backs
of my hands, and all the eyes
in my throat keep the fourth
watch, which is the holiest
of all the watches. These are
the hours when the Red Sea
opens itself, laughing,
when the darting eyes
on my tongue reveal the name
of the youngest blade of grass
present at the birth of the Lord.
At 5:57 pre-dawn: when the
waked deer appears and speaks
to me in the voice of my father.
I, made up entirely of eyes and
duty, cannot hear his words,
so the deer grows and grows until
this forest is made wholly of deer
and a thousand eyes. At last,
morning-sun lights my father’s face.
I prophesy: I see pride. Alleluia, alleluia.
Biography
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Samantha DeFlitch received her MFA from the University of New Hampshire, where she is the Associate Director of the Connors Writing Center. She is the author of Confluence (Broadstone Books, 2021). Her work has appeared in The Missouri Review, Appalachian Review, Hobart, On the Seawall, and Rust+Moth, among others, and she is the 2018 recipient of the Dick Shea Memorial Award for Poetry. She lives in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, with her corgi dog, Moose.
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