Lenten Poem-a-Week Project: Week 1

Dust and Beginning

To Ashes

Under my bangs
this smudged and gritty 
cross a remembrance:
A dream of burning, my very
bones done in. The great 
vanishing, even my veins 
sand. My cheekbones, my spleen, 
my grasping fingers
pepper the last rays of the afternoon
with their floating soot, 
the refuse of the body 
I used to run away from Home.
A throat that guzzled stagnant water, hands 
that pried for treasure, feet 
that waddled towards gaudy lights, 
all things florid and beguiling.
Forgive me Lord 
for what I have done with my flesh. 
For believing in my permanence. 
Immolate me in love and silver. Condense me
to sandstone and silica. Let your light
enter the opal stone. Let your prism
illumine all that remains. 

--Kristen McHenry