Hotei
—Hokusai
THE FORGIVENESS OF SINS
—Joyce Carol Oates
The dying embrace us
and it is not necessary to confess
how, squirming in one embrace,
someone yearns crazily for another
how, that day downtown,
someone ducked into a drugstore
to avoid someone else
the blue-rinsed hair, the day-old Easter orchid
in its plastic vial!
The dying embrace us
their shiny-skinned fingers are forgiving
always an odor of soapy warmth
above the hospital sheets
Someone will always be dying
someone will always be forgiven
Is it necessary to confess
how, weeping in one embrace,
someone is already wiping tears away
already walking toward the car?
Dying, they know these ordinary facts.
They love, they forgive.
They instruct.
___________________
—Medusa
—Joyce Carol Oates
The dying embrace us
and it is not necessary to confess
how, squirming in one embrace,
someone yearns crazily for another
how, that day downtown,
someone ducked into a drugstore
to avoid someone else
the blue-rinsed hair, the day-old Easter orchid
in its plastic vial!
The dying embrace us
their shiny-skinned fingers are forgiving
always an odor of soapy warmth
above the hospital sheets
Someone will always be dying
someone will always be forgiven
Is it necessary to confess
how, weeping in one embrace,
someone is already wiping tears away
already walking toward the car?
Dying, they know these ordinary facts.
They love, they forgive.
They instruct.
___________________
—Medusa
