Beckett: Poetry – No. 1704, Lent

Based on Job 42:6.

Lent is my season
of defeat.

For dust I am
and to dust
I shall return.

Death is inescapable;
not even science
can prevent it.

I look in life’s mirror
and see all I have done.

I repent in dust and ashes,
and cling to God’s promise.

I am not marked by sin,
but the cross on my forehead.

Thus, this season of ash,
I look toward the tomb.