Todd Davis

Alverdia Considers the Pillar of Salt that Was Lot’s Wife

To turn to salt
simply for looking
over your shoulder,
for remembering
a friend or cousin
whose house sits
on the lip of the creek
in the valley. You can’t leave
love behind. Columns of fire
and ash crowd the air.
Bone, what bore up
a life, your home. My temples
ache at the thought
of the seven lost children.
The vineyard. The goat
who cleared the weeds.
And the lamb whose wool
they wove. We all turn
into the same thing. A pink
lick to which deer and bear
are drawn. Tongues lapping
the remains. Not a pillar
but a slick, a refusal
to let loose
of this earth.

Todd Davis is the author of eight books of poetry, most recently Ditch Memory: New & Selected Poems (2024) and Coffin Honey (2022), both published by Michigan State University Press. His
writing has won several prizes, including the Midwest Book Award, the Gwendolyn Brooks
Poetry Prize, and the Chautauqua Editor’s Prize. He teaches environmental studies at
Pennsylvania State University’s Altoona College.