Cathedral of Ash
(for Bernard Law, Cardinal Archbishop of Boston)
We’re amazed the air
has stood still this
long. Just a touch
will scatter one of the skeletal
saints guarding the door.
How careful darkness must be
to gather deadness and
sculpt it to a shell of such
beauty. We hesitate
to breathe. All our lives.
Darkness counts on this.
But how can air do
other than flow and when
it does lift the ash away,
how can we pretend
surprise at the stench below?
- Rick Stansberg
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