Sympathy

Sympathy

D.S. Martin

You never did    introduce yourself
kept your distance    like some gothic
cormorant    in the top of a tree
surveying the scene by stealth    With
the aftertaste of defeat    & a wealth
of deceit    on the tip of your tongue
you drew near    your revenge yet
unspent    Taking on the form of a
serpent    you felt it advantageous
to remain anonymous
But were you really unseen?
                        really intervening?
                       really able to do him damage
by polluting virgin shores?
really able to bring the whole
house down    if it couldn’t be yours?

I can’t say    I’m pleased to meet you
but the game you play’s a puzzle 
       As lies dripped from your lips
       you laughed at the blunder
             of naive innocence
       but did you never wonder
             why Omnipotence
       made it so easy to slip
       creation from his grip?

I’ll try to have courtesy
                              & sympathy
but    mostly    I’ve only    pity
       for when you made paradise
resemble a twilit necropolis
of tilting stones & decaying bones
       when you shoved that man of
sorrows into the pit    you’d dug
for his children
       when you took the bait
& concocted death
       you inadvertently opened in our
hearts    a desire for what you’d stolen away
       & provided a way for the universe
to expand    & the insurpassable name
like a flaming fire
to be lifted even higher

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D.S. Martin
Poet & Editor

D.S. is the Poet-in-Residence at McMaster Divinity College. His most-recent collection, Angelicus (Poiema/Cascade), is written from the point of view of angels. 
This essay is featured in Ekstasis Issue 10 Print Edition

Painting by Karl Wilhelm de Hamilton