Besiege Wei to Rescue Zhao
by Sam Cherubin

1. Forgive the closets containing the past:
2. the table’s veneer peeling away; families
3. whooping while they cook in their kitchen; kids
4. encrusted before spraying TVs; roses who
5. refuse to bloom forever; utopias, ideals,
6. beatitudes; imperfect mothers, liars, drunks,
7. addicts; the formers and shapers of life; arms
8. dealers declaring war; chemical companies
9. processing food; gene-twisters, anatomists,
10. bunker-builders, prison-planners, masters of this
11. mystery school. The father, keeping his son in
12. the palace, pushing the dead, the sick, the elders
13. aside. For living in this world, not another.
14. Those who’ve harmed no one, who come when
15. called, who reach out, who comfort, who pick
16. up after others, and never complain. Forgive us
17. all, those who need forgiveness, and those who
18. are unforgivable.