I just made the hard decsion to remove a favorite and certainly my most frequently published poem “Absolution” from my book manuscript.

“Absolution” was first published in Domicile (Sept. 1999) and reprinted in Wired Art from Wired Hearts (May 2001). It was a mini-chapbook, 24th Street Irregular Press, #322 Poems-For-All Series, (November 2003), and reprinted in The Verb (July, 2004) and Cracked Lenses (July 2005). It has appeared on this blog in March, September and November 2006.

Absolution

On the rock’s underside,

sleeping in the soft dirt,

the earlywigs

roll themselves into balls.

The scent of musty earth

floats upward,

and they scurry to get away—

 

wishing to live in peace.

 

How can I justify

this abruptness of sunlight?

 

Nothing is pure

among thin shadows.

A chill invades me,

and I cast the rock aside,

falling to my knees,

as though my action

might proclaim my innocence.

 

But who will listen

while I explain—

crying a plaintive cry

to a lonely field

where summer is dying?

Those grubs lie still.

 

Still. With no premonition

of autumnal joy.

 

Those grubs lie still

beneath the lifted stone.