August 2022
Marda Messick
mmessick@embarqmail.com
Bio Note: I’m a poet and accidental theologian living in a city built on land that is the ancestral territory of the Apalachee Nation. I’ve worked as a pastor, registered nurse, and family caregiver. My poems have appeared or are forthcoming in The Christian Century, Delmarva Review, and Literary Mama.

Codicil

I, testatrix by my own hand,
being sound of mind 
and bound for passage
to mystic shore 
or entropic estate—
my will be done. 

Affairs in order,
arrangements prepaid,
goods bequeathed
and kinship parsed,
by death’s mean accounts—
my will be done. 

Now to be wanton
in wanting, prodigal 
in praise, lavisher of gifts
and trustee of days, 
a spendthrift in love—
my will, until.
©2022 Marda Messick
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