The burnt church up the street yawns to the sky,
years of communion wafers and water
boiled to sediment & brushed away.

The swallows are worshipping,
praying in the lilacs. I thought of that scar
hidden in the sorry heart,
with the light of our grace burning out.

At this hour the soul floats weightlessly
where the dead and the living walk so close.
This thinning hour is the only threshold,
where dew has baptized every
flutter of wings. Their
undulant, raw flight.

Beautiful. Who would believe?

Those angels burden and unbalance us;
they seem utterly buoyant and fearless,
weightless and everywhere at once—
daredevils of the sky—
devoting themselves to such small repairs.

Sometimes we hear them in our dreams,
luminous signalings leading us away,
an order of angels whose silver mouths
taste the kisses crushed in our mouths.

I should say I'm nobody's salvation, I've stopped
waiting to be whisked away in sparkle.
I have grown tired of disbelief,
the before—the after;
they have heard me beseeching.


Cento Credits (in order of appearance):
"Our Lady of Perpetual Help," April Lindner; "In the Shower, She Sees White Roses, Annette Spaulding-Convy; "Red & Reeling with the Journey," Sandy Longhorn; "Angels," R.T. Smith; "After," Joy Gaines-Friedler; "Where the Dogs Lie," Catherine Carter; "Meditation," Bruce Weigl; "Poor Angels," Edward Hirsch; "Altune," Alison Luterman; "Prayer Before Dawn," Molly Spencer; "Imaginary Conversation," Linda Pastan; "Angels," R.T. Smith; "Woodpecker," Sandra Alcosser; "sorrows," Lucille Clifton; "Grief Calls Us to the Things of This World," Sherman Alexie; "International Couples' Skating Championships," Luterman; "In the Tidal Fields," Julia B. Levine; "Flying Blue Angel," Nancy Frederiksen; "Abduction Under the Hubble Telescope," Levine; "sorrows," Lucille Clifton; "Interval," Jeffrey Harrison; "Last Day on the Chickahominy," Vanessa Haley; "Gate C22," Ellen Bass; "An Ex-Nun Resurrects the Dating God," Spaulding-Convy; "Auditioning for the Apocalypse," Karen J. Weyant; "Welcoming Angels," Pat Schneider; "Caesura Section," Erin Murphy; "sorrows," Clifton.

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