Benediction for the Sinned Against

Benediction for the Sinned Against

(three)

Blessed are ye, when men shall hate you,

and when they shall separate you from their company,

and shall reproach you, and cast out

your name as evil, for the Son of man's sake.

                                                            Luke 6:22

the baby in the brown

paper bag may have

raised his little fist

before he died before

the noise frenetic

and cold closed over

his body like a caul

noise that unstiched

him noise that scalpeled

a glide on its own

thin life down the belly

of his mother to open

and spill his universe

into the basin

of this ER trauma room

to pull him out of the bath

at the wrong time no

towel no holding

after the heat lamps

and weighing cradle

after she loads his clay

face and hands

into the paper medical

trash absorbing the gall

the nurse’ll say that later

she only glanced

when he rose

when she goes out to the dark

on all the rest of her 1 am days when

she moves the cat aside 

after he’s reached in his sleep

his paw to her underarm

it’s wind in the siding

it’s skunks or fox or any

crinkle of scream in this kind

of dark he may have she tells

herself he may have

after his street junkie

no ID mother ODs

raised his fist

he may have