Forsaken

By Clint Margrave
from The Early Death of Men, NYQ Books, 2012

Then there was David,
whose dad poured kerosene on him
when he was six years old,
lit him up like a sparkler
in a Buena Park motel,

90% of his body charred,
leaving him hairless,
lips swelled like a mouth
inside a suction cup.

Every Friday, we said hello
on the way to chapel
at Eastside Christian,
before filling the pews
with our other classmates,

where we learned about
Christ’s bleeding palms,
and the cosmic custody battle
between God and Abraham,

where we learned about
the meaning of sacrifice,
and all the mysterious ways
that fathers loved their sons.