How to make Communion wafers:
1. Mix a paste of flour and water
2. Press with a hot iron to emboss the Cross
first the wrists get thin
wafer thin
translucent so
light shines through
potato chips
waxed paper
linen handkerchief
grape leaves in the sun
one wrist laid atop the other
a humble prayer
secret religiosity
practiced anywhere
waiting on a bench
at the typewriter
on the edge of the bed after making love
eyes open or closed
doesn’t matter where, how
that is first
then after the wrists get thin and the waxed paper and making love
the lone door closes slowly
so slowly every millisecond of the creak
is heard with peculiar singularity
and the entire aural event
radical as hell
is transposed
into a riot-causing symphony
Stravinsky on opening night
four long movements that
sound like a door creaking
avant-garde, all the rage
that is second
then after the lone door closes slowly and the creak and Stravinsky
the circumference of the last window
(as on a fishing boat or cruise ship)
begins to shrink
from a telescopic view of the ocean
to a peephole on an apartment door
pencil eraser
bobby pin
bullet
until there is only a pinpoint
of anything other than darkness
yet it is not light that is left inside
it is the paste of Communion wafers
that is third
then after the circumference of the last window shrinks and the pinpoint and wafer paste
the world closes
because man cannot live on paste alone
light is needed
an intermittent sunbeam or prism
a window the diameter of a straw
one eye an apparition of heaven
even if recalled only in sleep or drunkenness
even if only quasi-believable
there must remain access to somewhere other than here
there must remain access to somewhere other than here
a window, pinpoint, humble prayer
waiting on a bench
before the wrists get thin
waxed paper, bullet
all the rage
riot, riot, riot
that is fourth
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(c) 2013