Yakich - Spiritual Exercises: Poems

You mustnt cheat. You mustnt lie. You mustnt regret Signing the documents Giving your infant son away. You mustnt not pray. You mustnt go numb until numbness becomes You. You mustnt get high on heroin, Glue, gasoline, or whatever is under the sink.

You mustnt write in a diary with a flimsy lock. You mustnt beat your breasts because the left is larger Than the right. You mustnt drive all night to cross an imaginary border. You mustnt sleep out in the woods in rain or snow or sun. You mustnt go lesbian. You mustnt become a missionary Abroad.

You mustnt throw out the rosary, Urge the father to take you back, or pretend For very long that nothing happened. For over the years, you mustnt let go Because doctors keep telling you so. You mustnt jump. You mustnt hang. You mustnt climb. You mustnt wonder if or when Your son will search for you in his free time.

You mustnt orchestrate the reunion. You mustnt hope for the day He finds your grave And gives God hell for the gift of sacrifice. You mustnt trifle. You mustnt die. You mustnt believe There is or is not an afterlife.

AGAPE

Right before you arrived, she drew a bath with extra soap, wanting to make sure her body was supremely clean.

It didnt matter because in the hospital they made her wear two gowns. When she began to scream from the pain, they said to focus on something else in the room. On the wall opposite, there was a small horse in a landscape painting. When it was all over, she asked who the artist was. The nurses said theyd never noticed it before. When she was alone, she got out of bed to see.

It was a print titled And the Ass Saw the Angel Kissing. What do you wish to hear, my son? She did what she could. But it was God who painted you on the world like tears down the face of a clown.

BABY DADDY SONG

That infant on your chest Sleeps. No matter the noise Machine & nest of plush toys, Hell soon cry himself awake. The one you kiss & caress & sing to.

The one who cant yet Smile at his own shit. The singular One who looks like all the rest. That infant will grow & grow Until you have to buy him a big-boy Bed, pack loads of sack lunches & keep him out of trouble. Maybe hell need dental braces, A trumpet & Canadian meds. Maybe one of his angelic fingers Will finger a girl or a gun.

ECHO

Whats it called when somebody Doesnt believe in God? Daughter asked.

ECHO

Whats it called when somebody Doesnt believe in God? Daughter asked.

Oh, that just means they forgot, Father said. They stepped around the little pets grave. I cant wait to die, she said. What? he said. Why? he said. She patted the soil.

So that I can tell John Waynes how much I like his films. Oh, he said. And she pressed harder, And later refused to wash her hands.

FROM THE BOOK OF HOURS

When Son looks up at the sun, He says he cant help thinking That the light on his face is Both ancient and new The light having taken millions Of years to reach the suns surface And then only eight more minutes To get to his eyes. In other words, Father says, theres no past As remote as the recent past.

EPISTEMOLOGY

And Daughter said, Only girls are allowed in my room.

EPISTEMOLOGY

And Daughter said, Only girls are allowed in my room.

And Son said, I love Momma, not Daddy. And Momma said, You can love Daddy, too. And Daughter and Son said, No! and No! Whats knowledge without logical transition Sentences? Whats guilt sprung from the back Of the hand? What love we all have for each Others faces and buttocks. Appreciate with All your heart the love that runneth from The penis, the justice that greaseth the great Vaginal walls. Mother, you shined in the bedroom. Father, you were always too tired to carry on An affair.