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enjoy this writing from John Sweet in the free 6" x 9" 2017 PDF file chapbook: “Bastard Faith” (click the cover image or the title for the free PDF file)				You can also order this as a 2017 6" x 9" perfect-bound ISBN# book! Click the cover or this title to get the paperback book Bastard Faith any time!

the holy angel of blasphemy, upon arrival

John Sweet

not a poem but a
               painting

a certain day

sunlight, but
frost in the shadows
between houses

a man with a gun or a
child left
to drown in the bathtub

soft music on the radio

and was this the year you
filmed your best friend
raping some drunken, passed-out
teenage girl, or doesn’t that
help narrow it down?

was it the year of the last
unjust war or was it
maybe the start of the next one?

all of this pain &
laughter becomes a blur
and it’s not a painting but a
photograph i keep in
a forgotten desk drawer
dead white tree rising up from
its own reflection in
the center of a flooded field

blue sky

endless grace

the last of the snow on the
far sides of the hills and
the obvious knowledge that
here was never worth as
much as there

the thirty years i spend
waiting for you to reappear

the first flowers of spring
filigreed with crystals of ice

and powerlines at some point
strung between dull grey
poles, but no buildings

no signs of human machinery

the hum in my head that
passes for truth
when i close my eyes
and
less with each new shooting
each new genocide
because listen

there can be no wealth in this
world without cities full of
children starving in abject poverty
to make it real

there can be no
heaven without hell

and, really, it’s not a
photograph i keep but a memory
and it’s not a poem but the
words to a song you used
to sing to me

i keep them both close to my
heart long after i’ve
forgotten the joy they
used to bring

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