T.

A funeral this morning, in the church where I made
my first communion and where I was present
at many other hocus-pocus Roman Catholic Events.
What's with the consumption of flesh, of blood, anyway?
The confessionals are gone. The organ is on the stage.
(Er, I mean, the altar.) And the Latin, where has all
the Latin gone? (Okay, you're thinking I'm a bit senile
so I will admit to remembering that Latin disappeared
from the Catholic stage sometime around 1962 --)

Today I saw my childhood friend Mitch
who I last saw in 1975. I'm having a difficult time
reconciling my memory of him with the man I saw today,
very tall, deep-voiced, adult. How? When?
We climbed trees together, searched for bird's nests.
I need to find the photo of the two of us
dressed as a priest and a nun. We were about seven
years old. Stay tuned.