Before the sun could rise, we returned from the East
And brought back golden gongs for our golden frescoes.
We were too alive to sleep, too enormous to tame,
And shook with the poverty that came suddenly with winter,
Calling and yawning, like stray cats out on the street;
When the sun came at last, and gorged itself on the fabric
Of skin, hair, and speech, we ran back, back, back
From our dreams of God, and the last flight left
Before we could even catch it; out on the road,
The world gave us tricks, offering leaves, blossoms, and other
Things as green as our blunders, while we called
For golden hands on our throats, a golden
Smell in the
Mea Culpa
- the fault is mine.
You're here again, my beloved. Staring down at the letters etched mechanically into white stone. Does the mere sight of my name wound you so? Were these letters what caused your face to twist into such anguish? The thought alone is a poisoned blade to my heart.
I'm sorry.
I'd go for you, I said. I told you I'd fight for you. That I'd fought to protect you. But maybe I was blinded like all the rest. Maybe... Maybe, even though you took the time and effort to caution me so, even though you risked facing wrath to warn me so... Maybe, I was blinded like all the rest.
I believed, you know? Believed in the glor
I know how you
pay court to contrition,
wear blame like a veil
(under which you are witch-white,
purity-pale).
your mouth twists in a
parody of apology,
an apoplexy of nervous
mannerisms.
you and I both know
that this is my fault—
yet you take the fall.
me: a criminal without punishment—
you: a sinner without a sin.
I wonder which of us is the
sorrier spectacle—
which would inspire more
sympathy?
the jury is out,
but on this they agree:
we're a carnival sideshow,
you and me.
I had a dog once, but he died when I was little. I’m in high school now and I don’t think anyone knows about him. I think that it’s real funny, how you can move on with your life even after it feels like it ended, and nobody ever knows. I mean my mom and dad know, but they don’t count, they buried the body.
My name’s Jacob Roy Madison, but everyone calls me Jakey. I’m fourteen, my birthday’sin October. Mom says that means I’m an opal baby. Opal. Like that means anything.
One day my sister woke me up early. She ran into my room before the alarm clock went off.
“Look outside!” she ye
Of Having Lived Through by TheGlassIris, literature
Literature
Of Having Lived Through
What was I supposed to tell him?
As he held the gun a bare inch
away from my mother’s face.
The bank clerk had pressed the big red button,
and the police were coming any minute.
Around me people screamed
and huddled for safety.
As if a few layers of cloth, one’s own limbs
would be enough to protect them from harm.
The masked man looked scared
and he clutched my mother
as if she were his own.
I stood there
like a small girl
instead of a woman, alone
amidst a sea of huddled people.
He was screaming at them
to get down on the floor.
My mother, I had never seen her
crying before. Like this.
Before today, before she took me
to the ba
One From a Drunk
-an apology, exactly
who am I apologizing to?
I have done nothing wrong. But
suppose I had.
Suppose that I had broken your favorite vase
and turned the dog out on the chickens.
Again. For the fifth time in a month.
I say sorry. That
can't make you feel better. Suppose
I had done something much,
much worse.
Driving home one night, newly-
legal and newly-buzzed,
I crashed into your son
as he was walking home from the store.
The plastic bags in his hands went flying.
I wish that he had flown away as well.
Maybe not the way he did.
Maybe,
more like a bird instead.
I swore I didn't see him.
I pretended to cry