I present myself like a grimy old quarter
having passed through too many indifferent, dirty hands
including my own
Humility is a planet of hollow glass
shattering over my skull
tearful shards exploding in an imperfect halo
Kneeling at the bathroom sink
with the light off
the height about right for prayer
Thinking clumsily, mumbling dull offerings
searching for a map of the past, of the future,
of this starless black night
Trembling and weeping like a death-row inmate
tears falling on toothpaste-stained formica
My novitiate commences here in the dark
and at my bedside every night
whispers offered to shadows
just before I drift away
over the roaring falls of sleep
crashing to the faithless rocks below
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