Poetry

Absolution

The shroud, the shards, my skin, your heart

imbued with spilt blood

that fifteen thousand gallons of seawater could

easily wash away, no matter how much love

gasps for immortality.

The salt I taste belongs to the both of us.

My captor, once companion, stained hopelessly with lust.

When travels over land provided penance through dust

impermeable sand became Elysium.

Flotsam, jetsam, faceless, nameless,

a drogue with no guilt.

Adrift in broken pieces in the sublime of the silt.

My body, pure white and aching to tilt

Away from you at last.

Kathryn Rooney