Wednesday, February 18, 2015

ASH - Saying Goodbye to Phil Levine

ASH
(by Luke Hyder - 2/18/2015, Ash Wednesday, in progress)

For Phil

You wrote of ash-covered faces
Black from the stacks of factory furnaces
Marks of a cross I have never had to bear

As I wear the sign of soot on my forehead
Today I remember you
Now returned to the ash we all were
Before fire and life were breathed into us

The same breath that is in my neighbor
And the worker and the beggar
And in me and in you
Betraying the truth of our commonality

That when everything within us
Capable of becoming flame has been consumed
All that is left is ash