Absalom – a poem by Jeffrey Essmann

The corpse sways slightly in the wind
As dead ambition drop by drop
Slips languid to the bloodied sand
And he who dared to raise his hand
Against his father can’t rescind
His guilt. It had no underprop,
His vanity, It dangles, stopped,
Inert. It has been disciplined.

Thus David howls in agony
And emptiness beyond reprieve,
For traitors still are father’s sons.
The battle’s lost although it’s won,
Yet in his pain a prophecy—
A far-off death that death unweaves—
And deep within his blood he grieves
Some other son, some other tree.



Jeffrey Essmann is an essayist and poet living in New York. His poetry has appeared in numerous magazines and literary journals, among them Dappled Things, the St. Austin Review, Ekstasis Magazine, Amethyst Review, The Society of Classical Poets, Modern Reformation, and various venues of the Benedictine monastery with which he is an oblate. He was the 2nd Place winner in the Catholic Literary Arts 2022 Assumption of Mary poetry contest and 1st Place winner in its Advent: Mary Mother of Hope contest later that year. He is editor of the Catholic Poetry Room page on the Integrated Catholic Life website.