David A. Bart - poems
  • Intro
  • Home
  • Kingdom Come
  • Tunnel of Love
  • Exit Now
  • The Passion
  • Texas Education
  • Dumb Supper
  • Good Year
  • Toys
  • Saint Michael and the Devil
  • Invisible Knights
  • The Rain Gauge
  • Ponder
  • Remainder
  • Green Ghost
  • December 13th
  • Dedication
  • Prevailing Wind
  • Dreamland 1911
  • 10
  • On the Median
  • These Things Happen
  • White Water
  • The October People
  • Scene from a Moral Panic
  • Estrellita
  • Another Ending
  • What We're Dealing With
  • How Did the Foxes Die?
  • There was a Man
  • Bio. and credits
Picture
The Passion


Monsignor James in pancake and spectacles,
the black red-buttoned dress of a dowager
inspecting Sunday morning hemlines.

On Wednesday night his head
is a shadow puppet tipped on a titillating
string of confessions.

When young men kneel, Monsignor
lets his finger brush their tongues,
his sole communion, saying Corpus Christi,

thinking osculum infame.
Easter scenes of trial and rejection
remind him of an ancient observation,

Childermass, when he could have whipped a youth
to commemorate the murder of innocents.
Above the altar hangs a man, breechcloth

and surrender. Monsignor James adores
the reverent verve of a Good Friday altar boy
climbing with a red sash to cover up the Christ.

He composes a rococo play around 
a bad disciples kiss and a gospel verse
corrupt–I would count all his bones–

while he steadies the ladder for two sons
out of reach.


Margie, Volume 8, 2009


Powered by Create your own unique website with customizable templates.