--- A L E X   J O S E P H

or if I meant to write, "ballast"
cannot be disciplined
within this narrow
context.  It feeds on itself
from the knave of prayer
and the cyst of canonization.
We feed it, too.
We feed on it, suckling like
the mother tongue.
He who craves is finished.
He who gives has not the divine.
He who is lost celebrates what is gone.
He who is forgiven shall not deny
--or be denied, and
He who is longing, he is lost.