All those promises.
Every teardrop wiped away…
Insufficient, Lord.

What might be enough?
Once, in an office hallway,
I passed a closed door

and heard behind it
my name, and sneering laughter.
Wipe that memory out,

in your great mercy.

 

 

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Maryann Corbett lives in Saint Paul, Minnesota, and is the author of six books of poems, most recently In Code (Able Muse) and The O in the Air (Colosseum).