The summary cremation
of the baby whose body you broke –
it might as well have been
a chunk of wood.

Did he warm you
as he burned in the fireplace?
What was his trangression?
How bad could he be at seven months?

When you tied the plastic bag
and stuffed his ashes and little bits of bone
in the closet, did you shed tears
or just responsibility?

If there is an afterlife for you,
it should be a classic, mythic Hell –
fire and brimstone, just the place for you,
a burning place.

07/22/2002

Author's Note: [First published in James Byrne's The Wolf, Winter 2003.]

Posted on 07/22/2002
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