I Beg Your Pardon (Or Max Von Sydow) Poem by Robert Rorabeck

Marie sees miracles everywhere,
But her son is dead.

Red roses in a vase.
I want to smash her head.

I want to kiss her mouth,
To taste the salt of liars,
I want to hold her hands in the fire.

If it is rain,
Then I will stare out into the street
Until I find her.
I will stare until I find her,
And then I will follow her forever.

When she kissed my neck
It felt like the bottom of a snail.
Sometime well before that,
She was just a child abandoned
In the sand with a plastic pail.

Marie looks into the wild blue sky,
And begs for an answer,
That night they rolled the stone from his crypt,
But he was not there to answer.

When lightning strokes the earth,
I look for you for hours,
But you are off drinking with your men who
Remind you of your father.

You are growing now in the glooms of your gardens.
Laughing, though crying still,
I beg for your pardon.