Poem: To the Gods

 

To the Gods

 

i send trinkets of my life

in a basket of disloyal tears.

 

my armor of wounds,

more feeling than blood--

that i add first.

 

next i fold with care,

and tuck in place,

such brutalized truths:

 

those cities of cursed children,

whom i sobbed to invoke,

and yet never dared to see.

 

dawn’s ocean,

rain-voices of songful spring,

sage aromas of chaparral,

and prism-garlanded forests--

 

these go in.

 

i place an enduring kiss, too,

one that I received long since,

and yet it has healed me of decades.

 

finally a dandelion of sunlight,

and dances of joyous breeze.

 

the gods, they will not respond,

or even understand, i know,

this difficult gift.

 

but by offering,  i have some hope,

faint as an angel feather,

to forgive the gods.

===================

10/30  "disloyal" replaces "unloyal"

8/24 "garlanded" replaces "sprinkled"

8/17  "add" replaces "place"

On first glance, this is one of the best poems I have ever written.  Of course, as is usual with such things, I am probably wrong.