Spirit Cabinet [Excerpt] By David Wojahn

. . .

& how, o spirits, shall I invoke you, who cannot count himself
among the chosen?
My writings & keenings are interior & treated by appropriate
prescription drugs,

to whom my conversion is incomplete, for some days I devote myself
solely to my dead
& in my error I do seek them & do wail. From the wire mesh
I glimpse the chalk marks,

aflicker on a kind of slate. Here is the glyph of patchouli-smell,
graven on a scarf
or silken dress. & here the character for a chin nicked while shaving,
stubble edging a dime-sized birthmark,

. . .