Fred Allen: The Knife of My Desire

Give me a creed that's raw
Unleavened by balance
Unbuffered by civilities
Rude to the bone

A creed that outrages me
Stuns my sensibilities
Galls my good taste
Flays my moderation

A creed that's ravenous
And implacable and scrapes
Me alive
Give me contusion

Give me a God
Who never apologizes
For anything
Ever

Who soils milky white
Orthodoxies with spit
And wild disregard
A God who has no ear

For my exceptions
Or soothing balms for
My rebellious brow
Or deals to cut

Give me a blade
To fall on
A sweet injury
that finishes me off

for good."

(In Communique: An Emergent Arts Journal