The Innisfree Poetry Journal

www.innisfreepoetry.org

by Terence Winch

PSALM

Leave me alone. Show me no mercy.
Don't heal me. Don't put more joy in my heart.

Your words are abominable. Your actions unspeakable.
I ask you please to take no notice of me.

When it's dark, you make it darker. When we flatter you,
you turn everything clean into a thing of filth.

Please don't eavesdrop on us. Pay no attention to our
adversaries. Do not cleanse me or them of our crimes.

When the earth shakes and the waters flood, I do not think of you.
When I'm on a high place with a song in my heart, you're the last thing on
        my mind.

These are not burnt offerings. They are the hamburgers we eat for dinner.
Your power is not in my bones. My cries are not in your ear.

My transgressions give refreshment to my soul. I will cut my clothes up
and throw them off a mountain if you will only abandon us.

Hide your face. Stay away from our dances and funerals.
We write your name in dust then forget all about you.



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