Stones and Snakes

Remembrance is a butcher's
where lively blood
drains from lifeless things
Strange thought,
to look for succor here

In search of the rock
where the water springs
and the shoots might grow

the rock
that is higher
than my head,
that is higher than my head

the rock

Poised and hung,
positioned,
laid upon the gambrels

suspended on the
hanging-wire
between felt sin
(known guilt, the
consciousness of evil)

and the possibility of human goodness

a thought which has
for me both
power and pain
(the words alone can
give me chills)

The possibility of human goodness

The rock above my head

Et dixit Iesu:
ergo vos, cum sitis mali,
nostis bona data dare
filiis vestris...