Levi Mericle
Redemption
How we remember, what we remember,
and why we remember form the most personal map of our individuality.
—Christina Baldwin
Forgive me Father,
but I am not a dying age.
not a lopsided heart cage you pretend to enter.
Where all you’ll find here is barbed wire
the rotted stench of heartbreak-meat
a dusty eulogy that was never read.
But instead you’ll find the polished gleam of another
the intoxicating embrace of a soulmate.
A masterpiece ending to the story written by the stars.
Forgive me Mother,
but I am not a postdated check
or a reserved royalty.
a loveless egg-sack the hen abandoned
a token black hand you shake but know is dirtied
a chuckle in your frogged throat by the mere mention of my affliction.
No, I am a welcomed tourist in the land of embrace.
A carpenter with sculpted words and enduring tools a mother would be proud of.
Forgive me Brother,
but I am not a cobblestone staircase.
an ancient walk-place you have to bear.
it’s a troubled trod for you isn’t it brother?
A beckoned, godless terrain your feet must endure
a callused journey you’ll never want to take again.
But I am pillow-cased yellow brick road.
a foundation,
a pathway that will lead you home.
Forgive me Sister,
but I am not a lost cause with a simple clause
a freckle nosed brother you cherished once in a daydream.
I was never par for your course.
Always coarse in a smoothened jester of compassion
hollowed in ways I never understood until now.
Forgiveness must be earned.
And I am not graphite in a lead-penciled world.
I will write my signature
among every other on earth
in the book eternity will remember–
in a book eternity will read.
Levi J. Mericle is a poet/spoken-word artist, lyricist and fiction writer from Tucumcari, New Mexico. Currently he is associated with the New Mexico State Poetry Society and gives readings from his work. His work has appeared in multiple anthologies and can be seen in many lit magazines and journals from over half a dozen countries such as Black Heart Magazine, Mused, Flash Fiction Magazine, eFiction India, Awakenings Review, University of Madrid’s literary magazine and more. He is an advocate for the anti bullying movement as well as an advocate for the LGBTQ community.