urban ku # 175 ~ mystagogue

Transient and ethereal meaning on N Water Street • click to embiggenThe lost little altarboy
who never really had it
adrift in a sea of age-old ceremony
celebrating a ritualized trilogy of heavenly hosts.

But even then and there
in the tabernacle of the most high,
rumors of sacramental travesty and betrayal
waifed and wended their way
through the minds and souls of the baptized.

And the initiated pile high the collection plate
with anxious offerings of salvation granting giving and receiving
all the while cavemen lounging on the sands of fear
gazing at a sky of mysterious stars and awesome thunder
wondering if they will survive the lions of the night
and make it to the next dawning of humankind.

I think I might go mad looking
for beauty, meaning and redemption in the heavens
when all the time it is in the sacred and banal dirt
under my toenails -
can I let go enough
to strip away the vestments of diversion and temptation
and revel in the uncertainty and insecurity
of its fecal odor and gritty taste?

These thoughts were in my soul, if not my mind, as I walked North Water Street on a warm summer evening. Thank goodness I had a camera to record it all.