dies irae, dies illa through the refurbished oaken doors the pews await your return.still scarred and gum branded by us then, they remember you in another time. faint organ music fills the vast hollow of the church's nave. we assemble as the ceremony begins. you rest silent, hands clasping beads intertwined with stiff fingers, covered in crosses and signs of faith, holy water stains your pall. we shiver at your entrance. old eyes stare up and down and close as they survey the gilded saints and stained glass tall windows casting rainbows upon you and remember the living days. anointed by cleansing incense, we leave, following behind you. tonight we'll search ourselves, speak of past springs and summer reunions, then like snow melts to water, as you become ancestral, return back to our charted lives. threshold running home from school , breathless to watch Annette and American Bandstand my Italian angel and the devils music in black and white and shades of grey i dreamed of her in mousekatechnicolour i acted out rebellion hosted by dick clark in monophonic glory. ate my wonderbread and aspired to truth, justice and the american way through frightening days of 8th grade battles for dominance and street wise knowledge that Sister Mary Laura never taught through sticky nights of hardening dreams that left me quickened and awake with memories of my angel smiling through the moistness of new pleasures i accepted but did not yet understand.
Joseph A Farina is a retired lawyer in Sarnia, Ontario, Canada.His poems have appeared in Philedelphia Poets,Tower Poetry, The Windsor Review, and Tamaracks: Canadian Poetry for the 21st Century. He has two books of poetry published ,The Cancer Chronicles and The Ghosts of Water Street.
Flight of the dragonfly 