I am a hunter who cannot kill.
The yearling unicorn haunts with taunting eyes,
Ready to lay its sacrificial head
Between my quivering thighs,
Asking the clemency of death
So it can yield
The song for which it lived.
But I am a man whose heart is stiff as stone.
Let unicorns and maidens plead for mercy,
For the wisdom death reveals, for a right of passage
Through the gates of horn to the sacred city,
To Gesù on its steps, to incorruptible parents
Restored from the grave and waiting with opened arms.
I will not grant that privilege to any.
I don’t possess credentials bright enough
To vouchsafe anyone passage to paradise.