Luke Bauerlein
The Litany of Bone
My father walks with the weight of a man who has never been in any bar fights,
never known the grace of pure knuckled snow, the litany of bone,
or dropped to his knees as the Divine come crashing
across his brow like broken glass.
And so I never found him in the backyard, with his
teeth spread around him in a prayer circle, the red beads foaming into the
February cold, staring into the eyes
of a man who had beaten him mercilessly
and without judgment,
a man not prone to violence, only curious, and brave,
brave enough to discover the intimate secrets of human touch.
Bio
Luke Bauerlein graduated with a B.S. from West Chester University in 2008. He has previously published work in Think Journal, Mid America Poetry Review, and the NY Times. Luke currently resides in East Cambridge, MA.