Sean Bolton
Abnegation Blues
Here is the hymn of the new credo—
Back to the wall, swallowing bile, later
found dead along the roadside. Carrion
sinner, you will find pride in what you
have become; a stench for the ages.
Beyond what any thought could be done—
could be undone. You stellar decrepitude,
why should we not worship? Finally,
a transubstantiation we can get behind;
about time. Stink you new god in
the corporeality of the other door.
Lead us not into salvation, but deliver us
to the warm maggot breakfast, witness
all vain apathy consume. Mind must
abrade: such is the illusory point of light.
All the exalted shit slides down and out
inevitably. We encounter true selves in
the dross, rise up as filth and discarded.
Sean Bolton is the author of the chapbook A Passion (Gold Wake Press, 2010). He holds both an MFA in Creative Writing (Poetry) and a PhD in Literature from Arizona State University. His poems have appeared in Prism International, Mad Hatters’ Review, and Otoliths, among other journals. Bolton teaches in the English Department at Santa Fe College.
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