… that maketh a man's heart glad and maketh him sing, …

To become
designated,
mainly:

to be eligible
for these
sweepstakes,

deepest essential,
perennial/s,
oh so personal,

costing everything.
To take
one moment

to find
one's self
suddenly visible,

composed,
risibly, of those
characters—

yr little name
made legible
in the ledger,

all merry, glad,
& manageable
even at the extremes.

Neither alleged
nor even remotely
outcast or leg-chained.

(Mainly
if dashed to be
yet elevated.)

So much
still remaining
that's salvageable,

eventually teeming
w/ consummate
value, even

in the extremities.

Brett Foster is associate professor of English at Wheaton College. The Garbage Eater, his first collection of poems, was published last year by Northwestern University Press. A new collection, Fall Run Road, recently won Finishing Line Press's chapbook competition, and is forthcoming.