Words End
by Dennis Patrick Slattery
[Image: "Lamenting Life" © Brian Morrison www.lightcolortime.com, used by permission

Words end at the edge of the wound.
The sentence in impotent punctuation
fails to penetrate the fading sore
where a scab emboldens from
beneath the skin.
So often you told others the only
feeling muted was happiness--

Silence will then speak the
syntax of affliction to a
run-on sentence and all
the most important parts
of speech will be abandoned,
left dangling or squinting from
sore orbits.

So end-stopped is the original
affliction that turns stones
into bread.

Dennis Patrick Slattery, Ph. D., is a member of the Core Faculty in Mythological Studies, Pacifica Graduate Institute. He is the author of 12 books, including 3 volumes of poetry, two with accompanying CDs. His poetry has appeared in many journals and magazines over the years. He has written more than 200 articles and reviews that focus on the confluence of culture, spirit, soul, myth and poetics. Dr. Slattery's work includes The Idiot: Dostoevsky's Fantastic Prince and The Wounded Body: Remembering the Markings of Flesh (Suny Series in Psychoanalysis and Culture), and Station-To-Station: A Monastic Memoir. He is co-editor with Lionel Corbett of Depth Psychology: Meditations in the Field as well as Psychology at the Threshold, and a volume of poetry, Casting the Shadows: Selected Poems. His most recent work is a collection of poetry, A Limbo of Shards: Essays on Memory, Myth and Metaphor. He is a Fellow of The Dallas Institute of Humanities and Culture where he teaches the classics each summer to high school teachers in a Summer Institute for Teachers. He lectures and offers workshops to a variety of Jungian groups in the United States and Canada.

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