Thin as a sheet his mother came to him

during the screaming evenings after he did it,

touched F.J.’s dead hand.

The parlour was dark, he was the first pall-bearer in,

he gave himself a dare & then did it,

the thing was quite unplanned,

riots for Henry the unstructured dead,

his older playmate fouled, reaching for him

and never will he be free

from the older boy who died by the cottonwood

& now is to be planted, wise & slim,

as part of Henry’s history.

Christ waits. That boy was good beyond his years,

he served at Mass like Henry, he never did

one extreme thing wrong

but tender his cold hand, latent with Henry’s fears

to Henry’s shocking touch, whereat he fled

and woke screaming, young & strong.