Jed ALLEN

THE ZERO YARD

I'm sorry, yes,
for the trouble, the mess-sorry

I'm late and shamed I reek
of song and death-sorry I flat

refuse
to mend my way

or shut
my mouth-though it's not

as if I haven't tried
to set it right-hurrying

in the dark
on the packed roads-

and damned if the house
isn't boarded up and the yard

stripped bare-no one to
gape, to gasp-you did

what?-as I hurl
my sorries at your door-

but a deal's a deal and yes, I
am sorry, so

furiously sorry, a penised
human shouting sorry I am

or ever was!—bone, blood
and flesh of me!—

sorry, mother! sorry, father!
sorry Sheriff Big!

that I called shame down
upon your House-a whole

heap
of sorry for having fouled the air-utterly,

damnably sorry
for these penitential stones

thunking against your door-deeply
and helplessly sorry

for the messy bed, the bad fuck-
and the squealing, lord! the

tears!-sorry
you had to hear this, now,

in the yard, in the silence
of the night

"The Zero Yard" is a phrase from Sheila Murphy's poem, "gendarmes..." (from Falling in Love Falling in Love with You Syntax)

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