...Such a dreary place to conduct
a Mass

The basement
was a scary place
I can still hear how that old door creaked
I couldn’t see without a light
where I was about to brave my flight
The stairs went down
To a kind of Hell
With splintered rails and
A dank rank smell
The windows so small above my head
revealed the ground of a garden’s bed
The roots that grew between the glass
Such a dreary place to conduct
a Mass

When I was a little girl
this is exactly what I would do
with unlit candles all about the room
Abstract walls glistened
such majestic hues...
With hand picked flowers I graced that tomb
My little friends
I lured with reason
for I knew to God that this was pleasing!
The altar I created
from some old cinder blocks
Posed with Mom’s old winter frocks
My arms outstretched just like a priest
I performed the prayers to share
His feast

Bean bags and stools became their pews
Lord, I did this in remembrance of You!
A child’s way to tell the Truth
My little friends...
Could I save first?
The ones who didn’t get to go to church?
I’d bless the whole wheat flattened bread
hold it in the air and genuflect
We’d drink grape juice and pretend it was wine
Sipped so seriously, one at a time
Do this...I’d say, “In remembrance of Me”
Bow my head with a solemn knee
I guess I felt a need to share
I just wanted to teach them our “Lord’s Prayer”
And know that always
my little friends would be...
Raised up to heaven right next to me!
Deep in my heart,
I’d always know!
In The Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of The Holy Ghost,
Amen



Copyright October 2006 Kimmy Van Kooten