—————–Truth and justice are two points so fine that our
————–—instruments are too blunt to touch them exactly.
—————————————–——Pascal, Pensées 44

I was on the Jericho Road,
Where I found I was the road,
The travel somewhere
Just north of truth and justice.

Errer was the principle,
And losing Samaritan.

Stranger, your body
Was a patchwork of errer—
Oh, how you taught me.

Attending the lacerations around your head and shoulders,
Extracting the steel bits from torso, knees, and feet,
We became composite,
And together, you and I
Bridged a vacuum.

Making contact, we blunted the point.
Stranger, I became your body,
And washing your wounds,
I disappeared.

 

 

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Claudia Keelan is the author of nine books, most recently We Step into the Sea: New and Selected Poems (Barrow Street). She is the editor of Interim and the Test Site Poetry Series.