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Penance
God, be kind---evil I've been---
Thoughts today so foul
Resigned to greet with smiling
---Induced, instead, to growl---
My solitude is stripped
Impelled to heave the granite
Till my fingers bloody
---Flesh ground to knuckle-white---
Bent head low to pretorians
For the hyssop branch
But could not taste the honey
For the bitter vintage.
Perhaps it is a punishment
For my iniquities.
I drag the nameless headstone shut
---Terra falling from above---
Fran Hinkle
11/24/03
