by Casualene Meyer
When I asked you why David couldn't warm himself with a woman already his concubine or wife, why they appointed Abishag, a virgin water bottle, to comfort the doddering king, you said perhaps the concubines and wives lost their heat, too. This makes me think of Bathsheba, the once desirable, in bed alone in the limestone chill of Jerusalem nights, fearing to feel Solomon's forehead cold should Adonijah, or another of his many half-brothers usurp his rightful throne. Perhaps she feared another beloved cold, for at last no man could replace the heat of Uriah's chest, nor David's thighs, nor the warmth of her firstborn of David and dead.