Saturday, January 26, 2013


GULPING IT DOWN 

Seven times seventy I have
heard you tell of palming
the communion wafer during
the wedding of the semi-famous
Mr. and Mrs. You Know Who.
The priest stopped the ceremony,
chased your sorry ass to the last
row of the Basilica of the Sacred
Heart, demanded the return of
the body.  You gulped it down,
then later hid in a coat closet.
I wish I could have been there
at that moment when the
god-flesh became your story,
instead of the other way around.
 

This poem from Charmi Keranen’s The Afterlife is a Dry County, Big Wonderful Press, LLC, reached out and grabbed me as I read her book of poetry.  This is a humorous telling of a serious offense in the Catholic Church … or at least it used to be forbidden to touch the communion wafer…very poignant and real.

3 comments:

  1. Hi Diane! Thanks for posting the poem. Great to see you in the blogosphere.

    Charmi

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I guess I'm a beginner blogger. It was great to see/hear you in class. I work in a law office and it did me good to see someone in that line of work also following a dream. I, like Erin, was unsure of shoving The Afterlife is a Dry County and a pen at you to sign.
      I'm going to email you on Facebook...

      Delete
  2. Oh, definitely keep in touch! It was a lot of fun coming to class.

    ReplyDelete