Thomas Locicero’s most recent poem to appear here was “Air Ghazal” (March 2019).
If I Were Dead
after Carol Ann Duffy
By Thomas Locicero
If I were dead
and my flesh a meal
for skittish crows
in a cold, unguarded field,
or submerged,
and my lungs
their own estuary
in an inlet or a river mouth,
or buried,
and my veins
the stems
of a fragrant blossom,
or cremated,
and my ashes
an urn full of ruins
awaiting splendor,
or martyred,
split and quartered,
only my faith
left complete,
I know His love
would wrench me
out of my death
into a glorified state,
like Jesus,
fed by my hunger
in a timeless space,
with you at my right hand.