/ Soaked Locusts
You think you have nothing
but guilt and shame
Guilt we all are
Shame nothing
Your words
are precious as gold
Saviour
I need them
Cursing was his garment
Soaked into his bones
Water in those bones
Taut belt
Locusts eating
/ Red Ridges of Rock
There’s a struggle
I can’t quite know
I see its ridges moving in you
Underneath
the pained push and pull
in your face
Shade cast upon eyes
Eyes yellowed grayed in age
Jaded, crystallized
Roaring you went
fists ablow
Fury through the sand
Plum plum blooms
upon flesh
Plum
One to the deep
One to the deep
Love harrowed won
/ Hiding
Adam
You’re always hiding
always hiding from me
When you think you’ve
done wrong
Come to me,
I’m already coming to you
How can I wake up with
such deep sighs within
inescaping
Little breaths
leaking, no permission
We drove past that
gashed deer
melted into the road
It stirred,
head lifted through
the red
My mouth in an “O”
We had to keep driving
Oh oh
/ Pass Me Not O Gentle Savior
William H. Doane, composer; Fanny J. Crosby, words
Pass me not, O Gentle Savior
Hear my humble cry
While on others thou art calling
Do not pass me by
I’m calling Savior, Savior,
Hear my humble cry
While on others thou art calling
Do not pass me by
Let me at thy throne of mercy
Find a sweet relief
Kneeling there in deep contrition
Help my unbelief
Trusting only in thy merit
Would I seek thy face
Heal my wounded, broken spirit
Save me by thy grace
Thou the spring of all my comfort
More than life to me
Whom have I on earth beside thee?
Whom in heaven but thee?
/ Feathers
There is no time for wasting
Tomorrow I may be gone
if the bell rings
Sly face
Split vision of none
Pleasing, venomous another
Rubbled city in a cage
Rattling cans following
(Sorrow you feel)
bed of sorrow you lay
your head in
Feathers, feathers
Gently cover the face
/ Charleston Sun
They returned to face him
You
blood on the ground spilt and shed
He came through the sacred doors
Sat with them
Waiting for eyes to close
Mercilessly ground
life
to death
Those who remained
Two words
We forgive
We forgive
We forgive
How can that be said
The tears cannot be fled
Fury does not fade
Bearing sins of another
The writer said
I do not
I cannot understand
this forgiveness
No cost can be made
cheap
One shining son
Son of righteousness
He bore it
Darkness breaks
Forgiveness will make no less
Throwing down wrong
Daggers killing evil
Marrow scraped clean
For the nine parishioners of Mother Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church, Charleston, South Carolina: Susie Jackson, Sharonda Coleman-Singleton, DePayne Doctor, Ethel Lance, Daniel Simmons Sr., Clementa Pinckney, Cynthia Hurd, Tywanza Sanders, 2015.