Shine

      This is the scrape and scar of disarming sin,
      The God scrub.-
      Filtered pallors hurricane the holy void
      Empty and innocent
5     And quite as frank as an open mirror or storm-eye.
      Oz-God with his cattle prod
      And tanned hands replete with treats
      Tells us in Schonenberg tones
      We must wash or wear out.
10    Old hopes, old hands, old wings
      Weaken and retard my rinsing and rising;
      What held me up now halts me.
      My father's feathers that lightened my marrow
      Now endow my face with suffocation
15    As thick as Icarus' kisses.
      All these withered glimmers and subtle shines
      Impinge and peel off in the mud;
      All Earth is crowded with 'down.'
      And I, I rise in rain
20    My high lungs two cauldrons of flammible gold,
      My hope as strong as a bird's hollow bones.

 

From the collection "The Soft Assault"

Written by Gregg Glory [Gregg G. Brown]

More information available on gregglory.com.