Absolution for Absalom

 Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem 

His work required the killing of some trees.

He cut them down.  He cut them up.  He said

He loved them, but he wasn’t really free.

He needed money so he had to shred

His ethics, put them through a chopper.  When

He took up painting, he began to try

To make amends.  He painted trees, not men

And women.  You could almost hear trees cry

Out in the images created.  Pain

Was aways in them.  Even when the weight

Of beauty won, he still felt he was Cain.

He felt that guilt was always through his gate.

  Pastel, a willow painted on a chunk

    Of wood required a murdered painted trunk.

~ Phillip Whidden