Like Laocoön and his Offspring

 Like Laocoön and his Offspring

Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem

He sculpts a statue where the brow of stone

Is filled with something more than words or lines,

Much more than marble poetry, more groan

Than rock.  An agony of loss refines

The mourning.  In the shoulder is the shape

Of desolation.  Who can see it, though?

Its blank lies hidden underneath the nape

And might of pillar of that neck.  A glow

Can almost be detected from the pain

Irradiating outward from his death.  The strength

Revealed by chisel made of steel stops stain

From showing.  Hurt is like the skyscape’s length.

  Behind the white force nose and white hole eye

    The memories of him are what hearts can spy.

Phillip Whidden