To Be At Ease About The Catch

men who put you down

are. for real. yes
so just where
& what do you think I am doing?
with a final flick of an ash
from a peach cigar
I want to say I'm proud that
they bit the dust and that
I come from a long line of those
reared on catechisum
now i am feeling the effect
of catechuman from
baptism
Jesus was
Jesus is
Jesus must always be

my past
dinner
in a church basement
afterwards i pass with flying colors
on up to the kiss on the hand
of a pious bishop, my
donning a pillbox hat for
Jesus.

I am aging and proud.

My mother in her kitchen is
singing softly to the radio.
My Sweet Embraceable You.
Who read War and Peace at an
early age,
who married in a whirlwind,
his hand like precioiusly, afraid &
fixing the ring to her finger.


I don't know any men who read
In The Rye
riding
to the city with limbs that reach furtively
for briefcases anymore.