Misshapen

Misshapen

 

 

I pray for misshapen lives, misshapen souls

contorted by the weight of life,

moon mists of clinging hope,

cloying determination

like barnacles that weaken metal

and sink the ship.

 

I pray for hollow-eyed

and legless ambitions,

for voices preaching into the darkness

of self-imposed blindness.

 

I pray for the lost who wander

the nether regions of loneliness,

the wilderness of love,

whose wisdom is borne 

of ashes from the crucible

of misshapen desires.

 

 

Dixon Hearne

Dixon Hearne writes in the American South. He is the author of seven books of poetry and fiction. His work has been twice nominated for the Pushcart Prize, as well as the PEN/Hemingway and PEN/Faulkner awards. His latest book is Plainspeak: New and Selected Poems. Other poetry appears in Poetry South, Tulane Review, Big Muddy, New Plains Review, Weber: The Contemporary West, various anthologies, and elsewhere. He is currently working on a new poetry collection. www.dixonhearne.com