Indiscretions

 
Today the dead are waking
shuffling through my mind
in blind rows
marching from my past - all our pasts
 
Each ghostly figure pauses
turns to look
for one stark second
fixing my lifetime
and yours
with their moment of birth
with the envy
of never was
and that stare
is always endless
 
I have tried
to push them away
>deflect that gaze
but can only
avert my eyes
ravaged by regret
that scorns me
suckling the whimpers
of our slaughtered
 
Beyond this sanctuary of life
tugging infant fingers
barely formed
await my indiscretions
and yours
 
Unless you have yet to hear
tiny voices of the unborn
rising in a scream
the most brutal debt of all
 
as yet unpaid