Eric Pankey

Speculation on the Absent God

As if abandoned

To a plague,

The church

Under restoration

Is as yet unrestored:

Awl-marks

Score the plaster,

Spray-painted tags

Mar the stone façade,

The scaffolding’s

Aluminum pipes

And planks—

Rickety, vacated—

Are off-square, at a slant.

Kids play kick-the-can

With a dented censer.

With each kick

A perfume of cinders.

Author: Eric Pankey

Eric Pankey is the author of many collections of poetry, most recently AUGURY (Milkweed Editions 2017). He has a book of poems, a book of prose poems, and a collection of essays all due out on 2019.

Plume: Issue #33 March 2014