So The Moon Would Not Be Swallowed - Award Of Merit (2008) The Word Guild

<i>So The Moon Would Not Be Swallowed</i> - Award Of Merit (2008) The Word Guild
A poetic journey with the poet's missionary grandparents to the China they served in between 1923 and 1951. CHECK OUT THE REVIEWS OF BOTH BOOKS (below)

Monday, November 26, 2007

Poem: THE JUDAS TREE

Cercis Siliquastrum

From within the alabaster skull of a man
better off unborn
throbs the pressure of regret
The hand that dipped into the bags
--------that dipped bread in the dish
--------that reached for bloody stars
now scatters to the ground a silver constellation
for the burial of aliens
& strangers

Too late --No return --Too late
The garden’s salty kiss of blood
stains his lips --ripe
like Zechariah’s prophesy
Irretrievable
as the spikenard of devotion --He grasps
for consolation in the word friend
Bloody blossoms hang
from the cursed Judas Tree

(This poem first appeared in Studio)

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