Best Last Rites Poems
a haiku string
a bad man
he could never be ...
circumstance
blessed virgin
wrong place
at the wrong time ...
justice prevailes
sweet mother of Christ
I stare
between the bars
snowey peaks
reveling in beauty
I seek inner calm
help him find what he needs
tight straps
brace against my chin
quickly a jolt
a young reporter cries,
his angst bringing tears
let not him weep in vain
eyes blink
and a life is gone
such is man
amen, amen and again
I looked
through the bars
snow still falls
a haiku string
a bad man
he could never be ...
circumstance
blessed virgin
wrong place
at the wrong time ...
justice prevailes
sweet mother of Christ
I stare
between the bars
snowey peaks
reveling in beauty
I seek inner calm
help him find what he needs
tight straps
brace against my chin
quickly a jolt
a young reporter cries,
his angst bringing tears
let not him weep in vain
eyes blink
and a life is gone
such is man
amen, amen and again
I looked
through the bars
snow still falls
Stranded, sorrows billow suffering sails,
Surf snaps at broken hull's plea; 'swallow me'!
Lost love, life black-white, living color pales,
Tears sew sad tapestry on stirred sea.
Surf snaps at broken hull's plea; 'swallow me',
Grief, windswept memory’s muck lines the shore.
Tears sew sad tapestry on stirred sea,
Grains grit harsh reminiscence evermore.
Grief windswept, memory's muck lines the shore,
Winds retch your name, sandblasted stinging bites.
Grains grit harsh reminiscence evermore,
Essence dying, anoint loveless last rites.
Winds retch your name sandblasted, stinging bites!
Lost love; life black-white living color pales.
Essence dying anoint loveless last rites,
Stranded sorrows billow suffering sails.
Susan Ashley
August 3, 2017
N/A
For contest: Lost Love 2017
Sponsor:John Hamilton
Tangled tubes connected to a body
laying still, breathing shallow, not awake
Beneath closed eyelids, rapid re-enactments
of so many unfinished things flashing by in meteor shower dreams
Unsaid words that are now whispered
to shadowy figures buried in the past
The dark abyss with mouth agape, ready to welcome this soul
aboard a grave ship sailing half-mast
Into the dim fluorescent room enters an unwelcome visitor,
dressed like a devout mortician in priest clothes
With weary eyes, he softly says to the parents,
last rites should be given when a soul is in death throes
One indignant voice and two pair of angry eyes,
unleashes a torrent of ridicule that catches the grim reaper by surprise
Words spoken in hot fury and pure faith,
knocks the unbidden false emissary back
The parents with one angry voice tell him:
We put our trust in God not man, on His mercy we will await
Then with prayers and fasting,
purifying their hearts in the well of hope everlasting ---
within a week, a mighty miracle is seen
Their son is brought back from the edge of death,
and they tell the man who read last rites, he can save his breath
My wife always hated holiday feasts
It seemed every year her hatred increased
This year she stuffed the turkey
With hard sticks of beef jerky
And smiled when my relatives called the priest
angry clouds crying
over freshly-prepared grave
soldier is home now
written July 8, 2021
Sun, my ever coming, now my ever going friend!
Mourn not, angelic mate, though this is the end
For as I watch how parts of you are slowly gone-
Still, others greet you on your shining throne.
But dear Sun? Why yet you grieve?
I never wanted more to leave!
Feel not forlorn- I'm just forsaking life-
This child of Death, this much false strife.
The game of Life's designed to betray
All hopes, all dreams...I cannot stay,
For every night when in bed I lay
In grave to wake up I cease not to pray.
He'll never slake his thirst for pain.
I'll leave him first- by my own hand slain.
Oh, thank you, Sun! Thy smile to me so sweet.
I'm glad you see how fake is my defeat.
In vain away I shall not fade-
To be a different shadow in a world of shade,
I'll let him in- the Devil I presume,
And all his evil seal in fragile tomb;
And soil shall smother, worms happily consume,
Till wounds of Earth do heal in barren womb.
A place of birth, though scarred by silent stone,
Shall be my grave when sins imposed I do atone.
But as for now, I bid farewell.
I long to spend some time in hell!
We'll meet again, but not just yet-
I ought to join the rotting dead.
When you have
an hour to live
what matters then
is Christ in a pyx
in the vest pocket
of an old priest
called at midnight
by a nurse
who drives miles
through sleet
and finds your room
in the hospital
Donal Mahoney
The sideburns of the Maples
Turned another color in early October
I look in my Roman bathroom mirror
Person reflected is a stranger to me
The green children
No more than sprouts finding their blossoms
Are impossibly older than me
More ancient than the planet’s lore
Poor last good kids
Hunched over and limping
Faithfully lacing duty to their boots
Strapping chores across their shoulders
They walk the cobblestone Earth
Knowing the truth
As a crown of thorns upon their heads
Anxiously crying
Father
Do not forgive them
For they knew
Exactly what they were doing.
>center>LAST RITES (MIXED)
I’ve been having thoughts, a bit macabre,
About my funeral day.
I’m not getting any younger,
So it might not be far away.
How many folk will turn up
To see my final act?
Will it be just the family,
Or will the place be packed?
Will they say nice things about me,
And will they be sincere?
Have I deserved any compliments
For what I’ve achieved while I’m here?
I’ve told them I want no religion.
I believe that’s all old hat.
I think that, when you pass away,
You die and that is that.
When they close the final curtain;
As they sing the final song.
Could that be the moment
I find out I was wrong?
Frozen body in
in the icy river
A young woman
met her fate early
She wanted freedom
But she found
Let the night come
A single candle burning
cuts through the gloom
In lands of shadow
Where can a soul find peace?
Old answers no longer
suffice
As the old tent - maker said:
"...sultan after sultan
with his pomp
abode his hour or two and went his way"
The door had been
opened before you passed
through it
Light in the window
heralds a new day
One song away
from the effervescent
joy
Only if you reach
out
to the light
will
you
taste
the joys of
laughter - and
the hopes which
float on the breeze
Let the dawn
fill your cup
Drink deeply
of tomorrow's wine
the nectar of
grace awaits you