Posted in Rituals

Unwholly

Posted on by tq1695

Catholic
my upbringing – very
dense layers of prohibition
punishment – eternal
for pleasure and non-compliance.

Stern priests
severe nuns
eager to please parents
misbehaving in church…. the greatest sin
murder pardonable, divorce not.

Easter
church on Thursday night
Good Friday, for three hours
Saturday vigil
High Mass on Sunday
was the chocolate worth it?

Everything obtainable
or alterable
by divine intercession
or petition.

He was a cousin
twice removed
motor vehicle….. collision life … in balance
one of three.
No one knew
none of the experts prepared to prophesise
only time will tell.

A prayer vigil
attendance not mandatory but essential
I am 17
newly consorting with science
I am not convinced God
would choose to meddle in our affairs.
The priest is tired and weary – conscripted,
neither is he.

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Author:

Most of my life has been spent on the bench, occasionally called into the game by extravagance or attenuation. Waiting has turned a loner into a recorder - nondescript and inconsequential, more not noticed than overlooked - the non-vantage point of children not yet considered old enough to understand. Orphaned Islands (Un)poetry is a lifetime of picking anecdotes up and not throwing them away. Stories collected like odds and ends placed in a box in the basement, the garage, the garden shed - uncertain as to what their use might be but knowing that one day there might be one.