She sketches his eyes into everything,
the way they froze the morning
she and death met him across the sheets.
Nothing and all stuck in that final glint
like the night they first exchanged the words.
He’s in every painting now, each facet of
personality explained in the nooks of canvas.
The jealousy in a tiny boy’s eyes
as his younger brother gets the girl,
the pride of a mama cat with her scrunch-faced beauties,
the hatred snarling from a gaggle of demons
spiraling out of a split two-lane stretch at dusk.
Everyone asks about her Barnyard Congregation,
the old farmer preaching to his stock.
How peculiar the pigs’ match the portly son’s,
the cows’ and curiously his wife’s–
why does the horse glare off into his blinders
and Jesus plant his in the barren field?
Jason Huskey: holds a B.A. in English Literature. His work has appeared in over two dozen journals, including Keyhole Magazine, Thieves Jargon, Word Riot, and Zygote In My Coffee, and has been nominated for a Pushcart Prize. Links to his work can be found at http://www.jasonhuskey.blogspot.com. He lives in Virginia.
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4 Responses to “TO FORGET IS TO FORGIVE • by Jason L. Huskey”
Comments
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January 16th, 2009 at 1:21 am
Powerful.
January 16th, 2009 at 10:15 am
I heard it said: “They all look the same to me.” I’ve also heard it said: If you throw a lot of words into the potage, and mix them up, it all comes out the same vegetable alphabet soup.
January 16th, 2009 at 12:39 pm
I think it is interesting to speculate what the painting looks like. I imagine a mixture of ‘The Broad and Narrow Way’ and a cover for ‘Animal Farm.’
January 21st, 2009 at 10:06 am
Really interesting phrasing in this poem. Thanks for sharing it!