Erotic thoughts that aren’t criminal 
very unusual 

 I won’t tell, piously 
Begging, don’t tell me
I imagine you pleading not to say
Not to reveal
The dark hidden truth
Of your inner life
The suffering and pain
The look of sudden ecstasy 
On the virgin’s beatific face
Filled with the alien, unknowable 
Holy Spirit

Christ’s furrowed back
As he struggles toward Calvary
To meet his grisly fate
A fate we were asked to imagine 
To hold dear 
In our innocence 

Cracker, grape juice
Transubstantiation
Trans disciplinary 
Trans anything 
Unforgivable 
Permeated with permanent sin
And longing for a fevered climax 
Transcendent
Pure

September 17, 2023