In the name of the forehead
& of the sternum & of the left
& right shoulders, respectively;
& sometimes improvised
with lips at the end & a pinch
of nothing held to the sky;
& sometimes mirrored,
the Shape drawn in plumes
of smoke & ceremony;
& sometimes twitched
over & again, a compulsion
to ward off tragedy.
“Dialing god,” they called
it when they taught me—
“crossing yourself,”
as though upon a tightrope
strung between
the common tongue
& prayer, we walk;
to “bless”—the body
as with a spell,
an alchemy not
otherwise afforded
to such ordinary hands.
Whatever it is called,
it is always Easter
in the picture where
my dead father has risen
his arm to flesh in gesture
the wrenching Christ
above our table &
my eyes like wounds
are always opened
as if with dreadful secrecy
I had witnessed blood
dripping into the food.
Aleksander Zywicki is a first-year MFA candidate at The New School. He teaches AP English Literature in Bayonne, New Jersey. He lives & writes in Jersey City.
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