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INCENSE, by                    
First Line: These long green sticks I shall burn
Last Line: My soul may catch and hold the fragrance.
Subject(s): Incense-trees; Smells; Odors; Aromas; Fragrances


THESE long green sticks I shall burn
At the shrine of the Goddess of Mercy.
As the sweet smoke rises she will understand—
As men cannot—why I burn it.
Not for my own soul—I am no coward—
I shall not shrink from payment,
Nor pay tithes to Kwannon
That she make the payment light.
I have known hell on earth;
Why fear that in earth's bowels?
Nor for the soul of the son that I slew
Am I burning this.
Neither as a petitioner for myself nor another
Do I bow prostrate at the feet
Of our Lady of Mercy.
Rather in boundless gratitude, in humblest reverence,
That she gave me strength. That my courage held;
That heart did not falter; nor hand tremble.
Now the world will never know
That my son was a thief.
For I took the treasure back stealthily by night.
Only the Gods know. And they are merciful;
Kwannon, at least; herself a mother,
Or so our legends say.
She gave me strength—To her
I light another stick before I go to join my son.
Mayhap, in her boundless mercy
Will she, with one of her hundred hands,
Reach down and with our blood—
Mine and my son's, ere the greedy earth drink it all—
Wipe from the tablets which the Gods hold
The record of the theft. Thus will blood
Have made blood clean; the blood of noble forbears.
If this be done—and in hell I shall know—
Then shall I make of my soul incense,
To burn eternally to the glory of Kwannon.
So with scent do I drench my body
Before the knife finds here its sheath.
My soul may catch and hold the fragrance.





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