Flecks and Freckles

It's complicated, his annotations to this poem say, his relationship with his daughter. Best friends more than father-daughter, until the whole Panther debacle ended his first marriage and created an estrangement. An attempt to heal after his second marriage only aggravated the situation and he grieves, openly, the loss of their closeness. This poem was a rending of his garments, a chest-thumping exercise in grief for the loss.

Flecks and Freckles

bitter as a lover's false oath
spoken in whispers with eyes downcast
when caught in trespass.
and just as meaningless.
for we all are survivors when cornered.
and I have sinned.
not the epic, but the menial.
and for the years in the desert
the sand will be my shallow grave.
slave to the emotions and immolations
of friends and pretenders.
gloved lovers and angels in ice,
a price I pay
in isolation.
desolation.
dissolution.
evolution.
revolution.
revulsion.
choosing this path.
and still, clinging to it.
like a drop of oily sweat
on a brow at the height of the sun,
when the fields are more dust than
the promise of fresh bread's crust.

the price is paid
in mosaic laid daily
on walls I cannot face
for they are on the other side
of the mirror where pride
lays glass and glaze
as siege walls to the sedge
withered from the lake.
breaking bread for a dry mouth.
the water is brine
and the wine
is forbidden.
with the ridden riddles.
tantamount to treason.
a recent, regent reason
to ration
the passion
in pathos
on point.
anointed nevermore.

and the raven calls.


William F. DeVault. all rights reserved.