from A Broken Bowl [2]

Patrick Friesen
From:   A Broken Bowl. Brick Books, 1997.

hope?

the table overturned
and dishes falling

cities gnawing
at their own bones

flayed

and shedding the earth
our flesh

hope is not a question
it's hardly a word

but yes yes
because we are what we are
and we look ahead and talk
because we are mistaken
and blunder on

hope

that somewhere
sun-blanched
amongst the wreckage
something clean
something still left
some last good in us

a moment of sorrow
in our disarray
in this dying grace
of matter

the usual crockery

Poem 1 | Poem 2 | Poem 3 | Poem 4 | Poem 5 | Poem 6

Patrick Friesen's works copyright © to the author.