Golgotha
Then they came and cleansed you my love
with a separate sponge for each arm
each hand and its citizen fingers
each leg and each foot pale as magnolia
and swept a burst of holy wind through your hair
for ease of travel and then they anointed
one of your kerchiefs with tapwater
and made new your chest and belly
and blurred your sex
then they gathered
their competent shadows
and turned you
muscled with tender indifference
your boulder of pain
onto a kinder place and smoothed you
and pressed upon your tongue
a eucharist of ice
and raised the blinds
on the wild and sleeping day
for Holly
Receiving the Host
bless this oatmeal
this ice cream
bless shakes these awful
jammed with calories
thick so you can swallow
thick so you can live
a little longer bless
vanilla just enough
to get the pills down
bless this little ovaltine
mixed in bless every spoon
on which your lips
stll close this straw
that bends so you can live
o bless this syringe this
single liquid
dose as needed
bless this
little longer
for Lizzie
