First Confession Poem by Bill Grace

First Confession



During the roving sinner party
with food and gifts and the warm fireplace
the special operations veteran took me aside
took me to a room lined with fountain pens
confession and testimony
a story of fields of bones - die leiden menscheit
of deaths beyond its many levels
ache in a voice pride in the history of a father's ggreatness
with the close listening
something twisted deep inside
moist eyes betrayed what lips would never utter
a moment of rare regret
that I could not raise my arm in absolution
speak words of repatriation and reconciliation.

At home after the party
Robinson Jeffers was read
(Hurt Hawks, Shine Perishing Republic)
as penance for a fallen altar boy
who just heard his first confession
with out faculties.

Sunday, July 24, 2016
Topic(s) of this poem: confessional
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