sin-eater

How I wish to be a sin eater,

Here among silent faces

Here in this place of a thousand suns

Here where only the wild ones grow.

Here I'd wish to be a sin eater,

Where neatly hung up, rows of crosses-

How I'd wish to be your sin eater

Where only white lilacs bloom,

Where I'd come up for air

-where I'd go and find them there.

But here I'd like to lay a while:

Neither I nor you in satin there,

Confessed things, professed things-

All in all to precipitate

The growing silence.

And here I'd like to lay a while

And how I'd like to take you away,

Some day before the drone hour,

Out there beyond the stone flowers.

And how I wish to be a sin eater,

How I'd wish for us to be brave;

One by one the lights go down

Until at last

These northern lights are snuffed.

And now eyes that may never meet

Hands which would never meet

Are clasped under the brave new skies;

They shudder in a brave new world.