1.

Never come here alone, my friend Tobias

Warned, as we sneaked around

The old sacristy and I marvelled 

At the musty vestments under glass, as we

Stole some big communion wafers from

A canister beside the gold ciborium,

Inside the duplicate tabernacle covered 

With brocade at the sacristy altar, 

And snacked on them in the convento

Of the mid-morning quiet, when 

The corridors of terra cota and machuca

Tiles were empty, and Tiong Andoy the old 

Sexton, Rex the organist, and everyone,

Including the hermanas,and the young

Pretty widow,

                     Had gone.

 

 

2.

Tiyong Andoy, stocky in his regulation 

White shirt and baggy khakis, and all 

Muscle underneath, was like a Franciscan 

Himself. He was handsome even, I thought, 

Ready with his thin-lipped smile, perhaps 

In his sixties then, and he had his own 

Tonsure showing under his well-combed, 

Pomaded silver hair.

                    He could have been a bishop, 

We boys said, as we conferred the title obispo

To anyone with a growing pate. 

And Tiyong Andoy,

Hunched in the twilight, about to ascend 

The torrefrom the rickety stairs 

In the baptistry to ring the bells,

 Was his own 

Kind of gray 

                   Eminence.

 

The real warnings came from him: 

When he rang the Lauds at dawn, 

With everyone still asleep,

    The midday prayers 

When we had lunch, 

And the Angelus at dusk, 

 When souls were said

To come down from heaven 

(Or to rise up from elsewhere), 

And while recalling the Annunciation

We had to pray 

                         For them

And the Word was made 

Flesh

       (Ora pro nobis)   

So everyone had to drop everything 

And better be quiet. 

 

The last bells were at Vespers,

When the souls returned, 

And on hand to make sure

      No one 

                 Lingered, 

      Was the head-

Less priest patrolling the patio 

Of the stone church on the hill, 

And we children of endless mischief, 

Especially acolytes who were 

          Communion wafer 

Thieves,  

             Slunk away snickering or 

Cowering in fear. 

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