Salt
By Patrick T. Reardon
.
Child of the Century was born in
a wash of salt water, a covenant
with breathing, an opening of the
eyes to power and unknowing.
![](https://patricktreardon.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/Salt.2-2.jpg)
In the beginning.
Child of the Century raised the
psalter in his hands to sing a psalm
of salt covenant, a canticle of
salt sown among seeds, a hymn of
milk and honey and frankincense,
salt and mustard and myrrh.
In those days.
![](https://patricktreardon.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/Salt.1-499x1024.jpg)
The prophet Elisha purified the
pool with salt. The one ocean is
fed by the world’s fresh waters.
At the lick, a deer quivering,
head high, alert to peril.
.
Child of the Century visited the City
of Salt, swam in the Sea of Salt. His
burdened brother turned himself into
a pillar of salt with his escape gun.
The Lord gives, takes.
On the midnight kitchen table in the
stolid Mildred Street apartment, the
fervent cockroach partakes of a soda
cracker, salt side down.
.
The Lord speaks in the headlong
poetry of the prophets.
.
Patrick T. Reardon
9.28.23
.
This poem originally appeared at Silver Birch Press on 9.9.23
Written by : Patrick T. Reardon
For more than three decades Patrick T. Reardon was an urban affairs writer, a feature writer, a columnist, and an editor for the Chicago Tribune. In 2000 he was one of a team of 50 staff members who won a Pulitzer Prize for explanatory reporting. Now a freelance writer and poet, he has contributed chapters to several books and is the author of Faith Stripped to Its Essence. His website is https://patricktreardon.com/.