Born with Sin
by
Justice Putnam
When was the first thought?
The first inkling of cognition?
Can I reach back
Find the original light?
Or was it a sound?
A drum beat
Heart beat
Moving feet and souls?
I heard a crying
A low moan
Quivering breath
And then a scream
Shrill
Loud
And piercing.
Did I clench my fist
Lick and then bite my lower lip?
Did I pray to a god
That did not exist?
When would my scream begin?
And for what reason?
Would I scream for the woman
Who gave me life
Lying in the corner
With blackened eyes
And scattered dreams?
Or for the man
Whose sperm
Made up half
Of my emotional outlook?
Whose hands would caress
Upon one moment
And pummel
Through many others?
Or would my cries and screams
Be for myself?
Helpless under
The blankets of despair
Pleading to the Saints
Of battered children and wives
Never getting an answer
Only delays.
Cries and screams
For my bare feet
Running on the gravel
Of Camp Creek
The McKenzie
Nineteen fifty-eight
The United States.
But I was born into
A sonic boom of recognition
And a silent fear of remorse.
A mushroom crowd
Walking in atomic heels
Crying hydro-electric tears
Pumping Bourbon blood
With bias plied hearts.
There were Catholics
There were Atheists
There were Protestant politicians
Burning black flesh
On Southern barbecues
While a quiet
But effective
Northern bigotry
Butchered more lions
Dressed in African velvet.
And women
Were subservient
In sexual boredom
Stepping out
And applying
Lipstick and polish
Mascara and perfume.
Walking with a sway
Along a jazz bebop
Saxophone avenue.
Escaping the file cabinet bedrooms
And dish soap romance
Meeting lovers for
Back seat hand jobs
And cashmere petting
And they all temporized guilt
With motel showers
And a street sign excuse.
And the children were asleep
In station wagons
Parked at cocktail lounges
And fathers were doing time
For involuntary manslaughter
Drunk in a car.
Penitentiary phallus
And penetrating denial
Barred-window shadows
On concrete block walls
Absent and jealous
Fermenting hot-white revenge
In the testes
Of another born
In a suffering Nativity.
Los Angeles and Laguna Beach, California