Forgiveness
During the mid-1960s, traditional forms of private confession seemed to disappear abruptly from Roman Catholic practice, according to James O'Toole, associate professor of history at Boston College.
The sun was about to slip behind a grove of Ponderosa pines, the sweet-smelling bark of which tinged the air with a scent like butterscotch.
Came an offer, cutting a four months slice
out of my whole grain life
Would I voyage to the Colombian jungle, the Argentine waters,
to advise and consent (to differ, raise mild hell)
in uneasy consonance--
to assemble a scattered myth
the bare bones of the heroic dead?
Who could tell if their spirit escaped
split skulls, rent bodies, tempest and travail
to haunt our history, advise, consent, raise holy hell
in the misspent, misshapen world,
edgy, sputtering, intent on dealing
the knockout blow