The Death of Angels

.

This is just to say that I

have lost my belief in angels,

having been singed by their burning wings

as they fell

I found one

impaled in the tree

she had the face of an old friend who betrayed me

.

Perhaps I threw her out of a plane

perhaps she grew ill in mid-flight

dropping altitude, crashing

into telephone wires like a kite

.

I find them everywhere,

withering in the barn,

in the chaff, like moths on their backs

gilt peeling from their wings

rendered half- human

when they cast their scapegoat

out of heaven.

.

As they were succumbing

one by one in my winter garden

it fell to me to forgive

and rescue them where they lay

.

I could have given them mouth

to mouth, brought them water

.

But this I refused to do–

It was judgment day for all of us

I exulted,

watching them fade like fireflies,  one by one

to be honest,  in several cases

I even set them on fire:

.

Here is your suttee now, young widows

of God:

Go now back to time’s edge

where you were first given wings

First sent

to delude the world.