Pastoral Habits
Poems
978-1-68003-079-2 Paperback
6 x 9 x 0.56 in
208 pp.
Pub Date: 06/09/2016
Available
"Few books of poetry as good as Pastoral Habits will come out this year, perhaps none better."—X. J. Kennedy
THE PIETÀ
Mother, have you looked on this masterpiece?
Seen how you hold me as you did when I
was but a child? Here joy has been
exiled, and sorrow set upon the throne.
You will not see it on your perfect brow
draped by its kerchief. Nor on your firm chin,
nor in your inward-looking marble eyes,
nor even in my horror-riddled shape
draped like a smock across your lap.
Now do you see it? There—in your left hand:
the fingers splayed like broken wings,
the deeply chiseled lifeline, and the blood,
or shadow, smudging palm and fingertips.
Here, mother, piety and pity are the same.
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Published by Texas Review Press