Older Brother

Older Brother

Marie Trotter

After Henri Nouwen’s “Return of the Prodigal Son”,

After Rembrandt’s “Return of the Prodigal Son”.

my deep, inarticulable fear:
should the spotlight of grace
escape its precise bounds,
eschew limits,
and melt toward my reach -
I shall be burned.

I do not know the curving hand
that has unbent its aged joints
to say welcome –

I do not know the cave of
my father’s shoulder,
the darkness that warms,
that wipes tears from
every eye.

I can only kiss the feet
of the God of Rules –
can only know love
within stricture –
will only accept acceptance
by exclusion.

my deep, inarticulable fear:
should the spotlight of grace
attempt to alight on me –
I shall be consumed.

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Marie Trotter
Poet & Playwright

Marie's writing has been published in Broadview, Plough, Intermission, The WholeNote, and The Lamp Literary Journal. She is a PhD student specializing in Shakespeare at McGill University.

Photography by Francisco Andreotti