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Priest's Kid

Priest's Kid

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by Catherine Hervey February 25, 2020 1 Comment

Priest’s Kid

 

If they aren’t family, you don’t know
the spit at the corner of the mouth
as they say words they’d tell you not to use
the sound of doors slamming as they leave you
the second trip to rehab (or the fourth).
You just know them showing you
how God, this white rock, goes first
into the plastic cup that is your life so friends,
school, sports, all else (this sand)
can fill the empty space and everything will fit
and how it doesn’t work the other way.
I like them best like this
in jeans, crucifix, collar
at the altar with the children
in a summer camp chapel with no walls
or on the beach, like for my sister’s wedding.
Alleluia we say when Lent is over.
A bright cloth butterfly beneath the Alleluia
on my father’s stole.

 

 

________

Next up Psalm for My Earthly Soul

 

 

 

Photo by Oliver Paaske on Unsplash



Catherine Hervey
Catherine Hervey

Author

Catherine Hervey has an MFA from the Sewanee School of Letters. She has written for Books and Culture and The Curator.


1 Response

Erin Kramer
Erin Kramer

February 26, 2020

This feels so real to me, and I love the imagery. You can almost feel the pressure there contrasted with the lightness of the stole.

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