Red Hot Guilt

A distant time
and place.

Now—
what can be said?

What time has passed?

But there they are,
still poker-faced,
red—

and I,
living with the dead.

Red-hot poles
point accusingly.

What time has passed?

A life,
no more—
buried below
in the lush, green flow.

They do not forget.

They whisper to me:

What time has passed?
We know what you have done.

Below
the red-hot sun.

I stand now accused
of the hideous act.

What time has passed?

It’s just a moment
in the sun.

Still
they prod
and poke
my heart.

But I was a child—

so much time has passed.

What time has passed?

My heart
will not forget.

There is no time,
yet there is
still regret.