Poetic New Year #2--Sepsis Epitaph in Septet

Here's another poem from my final semester's poetry class. During our Black Poets week, we studied Etheridge Knight and I was particularly intrigued by his haiku-- especially his haiku clusters, a form I hadn't encountered before. So, I decided to give it a shot.

My basic inspiration for this piece was the healing which accompanies emotional vulnerability, transparency, and uprooted inauthenticity. I'm posting it here because my professor said she thought it would be stronger if it were less vague. I tend to agree, but with the strict, 5-7-5 syllable counts and my vision for a 7-haiku cluster, I'm not sure how much clarity I can add. Below I'll write a little clarity blurb, but here's the poem as it is:

Sepsis Epitaph in Septet

No reprieve despite

our plea (the sincere to stay).

They flee contrition

Cardiac gangrene

glimmers grim in gaping scene,

cleaned by attrition.

Crimson palms absolved—

sprawled soaks in open limelight

focus not shame. Heal

wounds so subtle, ache

only awakes when we see

them duplicated

in neighbors’ gazes,

embossed in a common haunt

and communal angst,

threatening to mend

inconvenient division.

Sickness excision.

Pains remembered, shared

are toxins accosted, slain.

Our crossed hearts remain.

The entire cluster hinges upon Haiku #1's multiple entendre and dual reading of 'sincere.' Read as it is, my intention was 'our plea' is for sincerity (both truth and honest people) to stay while lies/liars 'flee.' In that sense, the selves contained in 'our,' having rejected inauthenticity, are a sort of contrition incarnate from which liars flee-- but, lies/liars also flee from contrition themselves.

An alternate interpretation is allowed by slurring 'sincere' to "sins here." The word 'sins' assumes the main object of 'They.' This second reading reverses the former's implied contrition so that the selves within 'our' are still impenitent, despite desires ('plea') to be otherwise. 'Our plea' is, then, for reprieve from the spiritual desolation caused by sins which stay until they flee contrition-- but this is a contrition whose prerequisite is personal sincerity (for which we also plea) and honesty about both 'our' need to change and what needs to be changed.

The change(s) which occur(s) is/are the "Sickness excision" of Haiku #6. The poem ends on the idea that these cleansings are both personal and communal, strengthening interpersonal relationships ("crossed hearts") via authenticity and honesty (as in the old expression, "cross my heart and hope to die").