Poetry Corner: At the Gates of Heaven…by Chuck Peek
At the Gates of Heaven, Facing the Crowds, Searching Desperately for the Ways to Measure Grace on Judgment Day
once if memory served
there was a table of equivalencies
but now no one can seem to
lay their hands on it
so possibly the remembering will have to do
will (to get down to business) count the dirt under Sister Gardener’s nails
as a novena
o.k., possibly a no brainer (unless you spoke with her Superior)
but then we can imagine the high pitched sound
off the amped guitar chording hopes and losses
is surely godspeeding something
no matter at 36,000 feet or a ground zero
what then the wounded tongue of
the woman at the clinic,
bitten repeatedly
each time she’s accused
of killing babies
or the witness’s go-to-hell refusal to testify against his friends
while the cameras flash
his inquisitor’s photo for mass consumption
another song you could write, another hell to pay
was there anything in the book for those who
stand (add the usual prepositions: up or with or by)
can we count the stretching of the figures fading on the cave’s walls
must we protract the perimeters of the circles
of hell
how far do the outstretched arms reach
Chuck Peek
Kearney, Nebraska / November 6, 2014