Frail Virtue

“Lady in a Green Jacket” by August Macke

 

(This expressionist painting has always fascinated me and gave rise to my following poem.)

 

what more can be said
when apologies cannot suffice
when all charity drains
from mean wounds to the heart
the aggrieved turn away
leaving evident guilt
unrelieved unforgiven
alone with the sin of itself

a contemptible factor of loss
now condemned to sustain
psychic pain of abandonment
punishment served
without pretense of piety
grace all too frail of a virtue
untenable so it would seem
for the most of humanity