Godless

by Judy Loest

In this, too, a personal failing,
No deity to blame for the dead
Mourning dove on the concrete,
Its head twisted into its chest
Like a grotesque after flying
Into a wall of glass, leaving
Somewhere a mate, a nest,
The green world and us poor
Mortals without mystery, without hope,
My hand upon the stilled breast
Losing some of its own warmth.

Judy Loest earned her Master’s Degree in English from the University of Tennessee in 1998. Her poetry has appeared in Now & Then, The Cortland Review, New Millennium Writings, and Poetry Society of America’s “Poetry in Motion” Series; her nonfiction in France Magazine, EvaMag, Metropulse, and Crossroads: A Southern Culture Annual. She is editor of Knoxville Bound, a literary anthology of works by Knoxville writers about Knoxville, her hometown.