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Clint Schnekloth

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Ash Wednesday

Ash Wednesday

Last updated on: March 4, 2019 at 8:56 pm by Clint Schnekloth

Ash Wednesday 2019-03-04T20:56:17-05:00 Clint Schnekloth

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Curl the fingers to brush back bangs

Consider the vast bald blank canvass

The tiny head in the crook of daddy’s arm

The elder, furrowed and somewhat dry

The youth, oily and acned

The head of shame, bowed but present

The face of pride, confident that others are more mortal

The heads not there

The heads not in the game

The eyes caught emotional and weeping

The eyes averting, too much soul to bear

The ashes, crumbled, crumbling

Caught under finger nails and creased into flesh

Flickering over noses

Or smeared in too much pressed olive life

The small bowl

Some frankly infused oil

Ashes of last year’s palms

Moving along the altar rail, there I am

speaking again and again

To child and friend and lover and foe

Remember you are dust

To dust you shall return

That simple stark beauty of imposing ash

writing them on all those foreheads

from heads at death’s door

to heads recently emerged from the womb.

The cartography of our mortality is intangible dust.

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