Faithless, II.
The skies infested with stars, their heckle and bawl, infested fields of scourge and tic, tic and bawl, scourge of twinkle and cotton- frayed spool. The dye is in the wool, the dye- stained glass—3/5 empty, 3/5 full—of human cargo, its bone-dragging melody. The skin is sign—say, skin is mine and packed with matchsticks and medicine that spreads meaning through blood. We see on shore the black-fingered trees at dusk open-armed, and swear by God, who deserted this ship for the bruise of purple sky, I am innocent as the day I was torn to fuel the green fields without name, without end.
Dan Murphy’s poem Faithless II. comes from his manuscript American Childhood Elegies. Murphy’s poems are elegies for an American utopia which essentially never existed. Murphy’s poems have been published in Field, Beloit Poetry Journal, Los Angeles Review, North American Review, and many other worthy journals. His chapbook, The Book of False Rhyme, was published by Finishing Line Press. Murphy received his Master’s degree in English at California State University at Northridge and he has worked as a public-school teacher for many years. He lives with his family in Los Angeles.
