Cherub Atlas

 

 

St. Dominic Parish, San Carlos City

 

 

In the sacred shadows of the altar’s sanctum,

The soft curves of him transpire in the fading light: 

A Botticelli babe among polychrome clouds, 

His dainty feet adrift in air, his gossamer sash 

Curling, concealing his infant sex. His arms 

Extend as if to receive a weight. Is he being 

Punished? Whence come the ethereal serenity 

Of his face? His cruciform shape levitates, 

Attached to the pillar supporting book rest 

For gilt-edged missal: His holy innocence

Bearing, by our deeming, the burdens of our 

Unacknowledged guilt, our willful ignorance 

Of midnight pavements soaked with blood

Of victim and suspect condemned and executed

Alike and outright, in the State’s dubious war

Against a proclaimed evil (our defenseless poor), 

All through our Ordinary Time, Advent, and Lent. 

 

 

(Rev. Jan 29, 2017)

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