Another Elegy

To believe in God is to love
What none can see. Let a lover go,

Let him walk out with the good
Spoons or die

Without a signature, and so much
Remains for scrubbing, for a polish

Cleaner than devotion. Tonight,
God is one spot, and you,

You must be one blind nun. You
Wipe, you rub, but love won’t move.

Credit

Copyright © 2013 by Jericho Brown. Used with permission of the author. This poem appeared in Poem-a-Day on April 9, 2013. Browse the Poem-a-Day archive.

About this Poem

 

"Someone I loved died, then someone I loved left me, then this happened where I teach (now on a leave of absence). And I guess I have yet to get over Sylvia Plath's, 'I am a nun now. I have never been so pure.'" Jericho Brown