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Eman Hassan: I’ve Come Back for my Clothes

November 17, 2015 by PBQ

At Notre Dame

 

Those tattered rags in a glass case

belonging to a nameless saint

are mine,

 

those cherubs in ceiling corners

looking down on us

are real.

 

If I stood behind the pulpit

and prayed out loud

while looking up into the palm

 

of a stained glass dome,

whose to say I haven’t stood here before,

even before these marble floors

 

were grouted and laid?

We learn about dying from the dead

in the form of a chain, of one long

 

chain, outside the circle of linear minds.

We all once knew the secret handshake,

the firm grip of hands

 

outside of time.

So tell me, dear Cynthia: who’s to say

these clothes aren’t mine?

Filed Under: Contributors 92, Issue 92, Poetry, Poetry 92, Uncategorized Tagged With: Contributors 92, Eman Hassan, Poetry, Poetry 92

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