The Book of Ear

all that remains of Ezra

by Katie Manning

Author’s Note: I am tired of people taking language from the Bible out of context and using it as a weapon against other people, so I started taking language from the Bible out of context and using it to create art. My process was to use the last chapter from one book of the Bible as a word bank for each poem.

the word
spoken
moved the
ear

everyone
prepared to go

the Lord
the God of
the ear
the Lord
the God of
the God who is in
God
and in any locality
may now be living

people are
goods and livestock
for
God

---

Katie Manning is the founding editor-in-chief of Whale Road Review and a professor of writing at Point Loma Nazarene University in San Diego. She is the author of Tasty Other, which won the 2016 Main Street Rag Poetry Book Award, and her fifth chapbook, 28,065 Nights, is newly available from River Glass Books. Her poems have appeared in december, The Lascaux Review, Kahini Quarterly, New Letters, Poet Lore, and many other venues. Find her online at www.katiemanningpoet.com.