Man crying unto the lap of a new woman
in what he would imagine to be a moment
of catharsis
wanting not to remember the
void he put the old one in when he went and would
not talk again and the word for the act he did
to their love
mourning to let out and hide remorse
Man crying among the search party that have not
yet found the raped and strangulated body of
his young daughter
wanting not to remember the
dim passed weekend of urge and grasp and how he had
hated both deed and doer but taken it out
on the child
mourning to let out and hide remorse
Men crying at the funeral of a soldier
kid that had been saintly and humble and always
had meant to serve
wanting not to know the number
and why of dead in the lands that their money was
warring on or the name for this idiotic
sacrifice
mourning to let out and hide remorse
A lifelong nonacademic, Rodney Nelson has worked as licensed psychiatric technician, copy editor, and librarian. His poems and narratives have seen print often enough. He made a cameo appearance in the fifty-fourth edition of Who's Who in America. Now Nelson seems to be finding new life in the ezines.