Regarding the shuffling shapes in the room,
they watched him given food for the journey.
They saw two kinds harmonise in the mouth
to revive an old body and its blood.
Sinner ministered to sinner; the shapes
understood. But they also knew that food
came from work carried out, and not from sin.
And so silence was added to silence.
And to another silence: the silence
that spoke in the shadows while evil went
unpunished. This was not a condition
for prayer, but an absence of the Word.
The room emptied; the sinners united
at the death. A light penance was imposed,
and reciprocated by a dark stare
that probed the soul, seeking shame and sorrow.