Salvation

By Stephen Dunn

Finally, I gave up on obeisance,

and refused to welcome

either retribution or the tease

of sunny days. As for the can’t-be-

seen, the sum-of-all-details,

the One—oh, when it came

to salvation I was only sure

I needed to be spared

someone else’s version of it.

The small prayers I devised

had in them the hard sounds

of split and frost.

I wanted them to speak

as if it made sense to speak

to what isn’t there

in the beaconless dark.

I wanted them to startle

by how little they asked.

Copyright Credit: Stephen Dunn, "“Salvation”" from (: , )

Source: Poetry (November 2005)