Ash Wednesday Poem by Joel Delpha

Sign me with ashes
Like the ash from the ovens of Treblinka or Dachau
Ash from the burning shelters of Dresden or Tokyo
Ash from a napalmed hamlet
Smoldering ash from an Iraqi marketplace
Ash floating gently down
on lower Manhattan.

Sign me with ashes
The ashes of indifference
The ashes of reason and expediency
The ashes of what regrettably had to be done
For the sake of the nation
For the sake of the party
For the sake of the revolution
For God's sake.

Sign me with ashes
I am both victim and executioner.