top of page
write4hire

THE VENGEANCE ALL AROUND US












From a Pew in the Woods

After you step into the barn to find a shovel, mosquitos buzzing in your ear, sucking blood from your ankles, branches cracking outside the sawmilled walls, maybe a deer, a fox, perhaps a coyote, a bear, no way to know, but you do see turkey vultures and hawks circling overhead as you walk out into the sun, chipmunks racing along rock walls, turtles down by the stream, black snakes hidden in tall grass where you shovel deep into the earth to unearth roots, the boundless spirit of life all around in the mysteries of these speckled woods, an unending darkness behind the sunlight, behind the moonlight, no flashlight to show the way, just an airy bioluminescent belief that it sparkles

in some beautiful and awful harmony,

this hallowed planet spinning perfectly

through endless space, orbit after orbit,

the whirring in your ears telling tales

of such heartache, such pain, so much sorrow,

so much rage in the faces you pass

on Main Street, the grimaces behind the smirks

on Facebook, haunting you until you drop

the shovel and sit on a fallen log, a pew,

looking out through the shadows,


wondering if all this fury is just Cain’s

terrible story told again and again,

one lost and bitter soul after another

stumbling blindly through the human forest

seeking revenge for eons of disappointment,

countless generations of impotent rage

at God forsaking them their meager gifts,

for making this mystifying life, this indifferent

life, this world without end, some Lucifer

whispering in our ears about a Paradise,

not lost, but stolen out of our callused hands.


–SL, New Paltz, NY, July 2022





149 views3 comments

Recent Posts

See All

ONE YEAR

3 Comments

Rated 0 out of 5 stars.
No ratings yet

Add a rating
Nan Mutnick
Nan Mutnick
Jul 09, 2022

This one cuts to the soul.

Like

Larry Winters
Larry Winters
Jul 09, 2022

We are swimming in the same pool. The water deepened at the other end and it getting dark out. Go well L

Like

Olivia Grayson
Olivia Grayson
Jul 09, 2022

On From the Pew: Boy, am I feeling that vengeance--brother killing brother.

Like
website header.jpg
bottom of page