Only once in my life have I prayed before eating

It was a cloudy morning

The pouches under my eyes had grown fat after the wild sleepless night

My sweet baby was making breakfast and crooning

When I saw her

I lost my mind

I came up to her on my knees from behind

I lifted the hems of her nightgown up to the waist

Like a theatre curtain

I could think of no match for this performance

The astonishingly round ass wouldn’t let

The hems slide down

There was no underwear beneath the nightgown

The vertical line dividing the butt cheeks reached

Her bare feet

And that long line was intersected above

By the little horizontal lines dividing

The cheeks from the thighs

And before that concave cross

I said the sincerest prayer of the world

Kissing the hollow cross after each letter of my prayer

And when

Having lost my patience

I crucified myself on this live cross

And the breakfast jolted out of the poor girl’s hands right into the sink

And the dishes smashed

Because of the hammering blows of the thrusting nail

I lavishly absolved all the sins

Of all living beings

Amen

April 20, 2005