Clockwise Cat Strikes Back
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Last Rite. Paulist Center<br />
By James Hannon<br />
The faithful enter from the winter snow<br />
to a warm den of conversation.<br />
White, black and brown, old and young,<br />
they mingle in the nave, touch and embrace.<br />
Women prepare the altar,<br />
bread and wine, book and bells.<br />
The scent of candle smoke mingles<br />
with the damp air of a catacomb.<br />
Five minutes into a dazzling sermon,<br />
a tapestry of metaphor and wit,<br />
cosmic theme and local reference,<br />
my teeth are clenched.<br />
I start to squirm and mutter.<br />
Then this groan from the back of the church—<br />
“Speak from the heart, father!<br />
Speak from the heart!”<br />
My hungover heart races and I’m afraid<br />
to turn around. Now I hear him weeping<br />
“Forgive me, father!”<br />
as he is pulled from his pew by fast-moving ushers,
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