Visions of Absalom

Visions of Absalom

Dietrich Balsbaugh

“I see that you would be pleased if Absalom were alive today and all of us were dead. Now go out and encourage your men. I swear by the Lord that if you don’t go out, not a man will be left with you by nightfall. This will be worse for you than all the calamities that have come on you from your youth till now.”
—2 Samuel 19:6-8

I.
He stares out the window
and hears nothing on the radio
but my son my son my son.
She looks a proper Bathsheba,
pretty and ashamed,
as she dresses for the celebration
thinking of the child they could not save.

II.
They move across the ballroom floor
in a perfect waltz.
She wears a short green dress
and too much makeup
as if it’s still the competition days.
He is a skeleton of dignity,
as sure a dancer as death himself
with a red bow tie and formal eyes.
They have lived too long
but still move in perfect step,
arms rising and falling like the heads of swans. 

III.
He undresses slowly
a little heavy with wine,
afraid of what she might say,
but she just stares at the ceiling
while he turns out the light.
Fireworks in Jerusalem.
My son my son my son.

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Dietrich Balsbaugh
Poet & Banking Analyst

Dietrich's poems have appeared in Veritas Journal. He lives in South Bend, IN, where he enjoys birding, reading, and taking walks by the river with his wife.

Painting by Józef Pankiewicz (Polish, 1866 - 1940), Swans in the Saski Garden at Night (1896)