Frank Desiderio

To surrender to a sacrament

To surrender to a sacrament

is to open

to be swept

clean

away

in a flood

to feast with friends on a spring fresh shore

to never again have to carry a burden to exhaustion

to be joined and pressed

to be rebuilt again and again and again

to give in ways unforeseen

to be an open grave

in the row of your generation.

Hymns

The squeak of the walker wheels

starts out in the parking lot,

advances slowly through the door

and down the center aisle.

The quick loud clicks of the three-year-old girl’s hard shoes

as she goes back and forth between the first pew

and the edge of the sanctuary, walking up,

testing her limits, and then running back.

The dominant chord from the choir

of crying babies and fussy children

mixes with the minor tones of rustling bulletins,

the zipper of a purse

and the passing of toys and baggies of Cheerios

and above them all the bleeps and songs of ringtones.

These are the hymns of the faithful,

counterpoint to the prayer book songs,

that you, Dear One,

listen to so diligently

while I fume impatiently.

Frank Desiderio served as a pastor, campus minister, and author (Can You Let Go of a Grudge, Paulist Press, 2014).  He produced the film Judas for ABC TV (2004). His poems have appeared in the Spring Hill Review, Windhover, Ars Medica, among other journals. He lives in  Manhattan.