Human Elegy

In a specific chapter of my life,
it was a delight to think
about being lowered
into the soft mouth of soil.
I desperately wanted to witness
the jaw of earth softening
the worth of my body.
Extracting what little breath it thought
I still harbored. I had hidden God
in a poem where the speaker
cultivates a metaphor about
nearness. For a year, I toiled away
at the door of prayer. Fingers wild
with panic, clawing at an invisible door.
I lobbied heaven for a mild judgment.