Smithereens Press Chapbooks Taking the Oath by Tom French | Page 24

The Last General Absolution of the Munsters,
at Rue du Bois
from a painting by Fortunino Matania

‘Misereatur vestri omnipotens Deus, et dimissis
peccatis vestris, perducat vos ad vitam aeternam.’

Were every head to be
ransacked for wrong
and he to listen
to them one by one,
the sun, just rising now,
after a night of rain,
making damp backs steam,
would be gone down.
The horses are the ones
who witness the sun.
They have been so good
they have no reason
to stare at the ground,
as Father Gleeson
raises, above them,
like a gun, his hand.

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