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By J. O. LeClerc

The necklaced silver crucifix

sign of most raw unbroken courage

my medal given for all my fists

and broken bones and kicks

my marathon hard road haul back

yes, back to my natural heritage

I was lost, I was lost, I was lost

I was lost and then found my right hand again

in the holy gift of natural marriage

but my once white and happy heart

was speckled in the spider dust of coal

breathed in demon mines, the chimney

soot of life's daily carnage

and I coughed with most awkward talk

broken by a violent, wild, childish, angry mind

anger there was in my very limbs

but coal toned clouds were broken

with the miracle spear shaft light

thrown by the javelinist, the cross man. Him.

Then could I read the Mary word

the Mary white word of the Mary teared cross

and then my list of loss and loss and loss and loss

disappeared like the erasure

of the devil's scribbled anti-hymn

an then I could go home, go home

and breathe fresh, breathe beauty fresh pure air

God given exhilirant, articulate,

immaculate holy oxygen.