Le Pendu

Dominic,
yours is the
Third Order.
I come by
for momentary
hospitality,
seeing the gray area
of conversion
over time
where the structure
is always
Advent-
not so much the
black and white house
to live in.
You must remember
my grandmother
making those sheets
a habit
so that I could
pretend I was
yours.
At age eleven
I was a proper child
suited for the work of
healing and preaching
the kingdom.
I remember
dreaming of being
worthy of white
in that Time
before I entered
the body,
I knew no distance then.
But the stained and
bloodied robe
proves a weaker vessel
and better fit
for the Dominican life.
Now I am thought mad
surrounded by the
flutter and call of
angels
and living (they say)
only partially here,
hanging upside-down,
"Le Pendu."
This is the soul
mortified bodily
by the cost of self...
suspended by the memory
of a Light
called Home.

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• Icons by Fr. William McNichols

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This page is managed by Fr. Raymond A. Bucko, S.J. of the Department of Sociology and Anthropology at Creighton University. E-Mail: bucko@creighton.edu Page Last Updated: December 1, 2001

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