BUILDING HUMAN CATHEDRALS

summer gone without warning

the burning house where you left it

twenty years ago and

your father still trapped inside

the past can be rewritten

but not changed

and it makes me tired

i am thinking of the suicide queen

and the stories of her boyfriends

how they sold her for cash

or traded her

for tires

is what she told me

for a new tape deck

and before that

it was her stepfather

and i am sorry

yes

but i am not anyone's savior

i am not a confessor

but still these stories pool at my feet

still the drowning boy is found

three days too late

and his parents blame whoever they can

and all the statues of the virgin mary

that line this dead-end street

refuse to weep

the pavement shines in the bitter rain

and the flags fade to

silent admissions of surrender

we have been speaking of war for

the past two months

without naming the enemy

we have granted pardons to

the killers of young women

have forgiven them their violence

and we are in love with our own voices

the sounds of dangerous words

as they spill

from the lips of politicians

the screams of the bodies that fall

from the 98th floor

and i have been in this room

for too long

the mirrors are heavy with dust

the windows warped

the clocks all run down and

it's here where i finally realize that

i will always be numbered

among the guilty

it is a small thing in the face

of so much freedom