Clean

She came to be baptized.
Once such a beautiful child,
she had fallen hard
into the open sewer
through which her sullied heart
had traveled.
Her once tender spirit
bore ugly wounds.
Neglect, addiction, deceit
had left her fearful, jaded,
lonely and alone.
She arrived in tears,
daring to believe that
there might be one more chance,
that she might once more be
clean.
As she came up out of the
green river,
she shook the sacred water
in a glittering halo of hope,
laughing past her pain,
not exactly untarnished, bright, or pure,
but feeling washed,
or possibly forgiven,
in a shaft of morning light.

--Timothy Haut, Feb. 25, 2016