Poetry
“Crimen sollicitationis: confessional soliciting where the priest confessor made sexual overtures or engaged in actual genital activity with the penitent. “ —Catholic Culture
SONNET FOR HIS HOLINESS PIMP PIUS X
When seven tiny candles light my round pink cake,
I will reach your new Age of Discretion, share
in the Mystery of Confession, receive
Absolution in the dark box of your love.
Then I must abide on the hot sin side
of the guillotine slide, the perforated portal
flying back with the slap, the crack, the birth
of the black fissure rupturing silently
in the child you’ve chosen. Bless me Father
we all say, and some say yes to ice cream
in your long black car, living death ever after.
Each week you return to your own confessor
to square the circle of your crimes and repeat
on your knees: Bless Me Father for I have sinned.