Ash Wednesday 2014

Ash is solemn sobriety

and

a birthlong cultivated contrition

Wednesday is felicitous midweek

for forward-looking backward looking

over every individual day

every tiniest roundly reflexive doing of week-life

And there are emotive memories

of non-imputable days

when mother-clinging lads

queued enchantedly up

for inscription with the ascetic season

immersion in mindful mournfulness

saddled in sack clothes

Now perfumed participants

pricey ointment poured on fattened fleshes
foreheads take in choice cosmetic strides

ash-shines of cultured contrition.