Two Poems by Alec Solomita

 

When St. Francis

 

When St. Francis of Assisi

caught himself licking

his fingers after eating

some chicken,

he threw his naked body

into a thorn bush and turned

and twisted among the thorns.

 

Even for the pious boy I was,

this spectacular act of contrition

seemed somewhat excessive.

Nevertheless, I put pebbles in my Keds

to draw near to our precious Saviour.

 

Faith

 

My mild and fervid father spoke

the parables to us, seductive stories

filled with faith, hope, and apostles.

 

I’d slip out at night and kneel

in front of nodding bushes to pray for a vision —

the radiance of Our Lady of Lourdes,

the consolation of Blessed Martin de Porres.

Sometimes I’d stay for an hour,

my pyjamas sponging up the green dew.

 

Over time, my siblings and I began to fall

from faith’s exacting branches like ripe peaches.

Dad was pained, though we still said grace

and on Sundays processed dutifully to church.

 

Without belief, the rites continued to move me —

the dogged organ, the giddy smoke,

the Gregorian chant, the priest dressed to kill,

and the rooted faith of my father.

 

After Mom died of slow cancer,

my father came to realize it was she

he worshipped and adored. It broke

my heart when Dad stopped going to Mass,

his new ritual sitting in front of the TV.

 

His upstairs neighbour complained once

about the volume, and my timid father never

watched TV again. His losses were infinite,

a word he’d explained to us years before,

but in a different context.

Alec Solomita is a writer and artist working in the Boston (USA) area. His fiction has appeared in the Southwest Review, The Mississippi Review, Southword Journal, and Peacock, among other publications. He was shortlisted by the Bridport Prize and Southword Journal. His poetry has appeared in Poetica, Lothlorien Poetry Journal, Litbreak, Driftwood Press, Anti-Heroin Chic, The Galway Review, The Lake, and elsewhere, including several anthologies. His photographs and drawings can be found in Convivium, Fatal Flaw, Young Ravens Review, Tell-Tale Inklings, and other publications. He took the cover photo and designed the cover of his poetry chapbook, “Do Not Forsake Me,” which was published in 2017. His full-length poetry book “Hard To Be a Hero,” will be coming out in spring of next year.