winged migration: 2015

I pull up to my cousin's house

and hanging from a tree not far from the drive:

two crosses.

Above is Francis-shaped from San Damiano.

Below a living Pocono Passion Play;

its convict sobbing and writhing.

She asks what it means and

I respond with certainty as if I know:

that child's lesson of sin's result.

That priest putting care on the paten

a thousand times.

That christ suffering every sling and arrow ad infinitum;

every white lie a lash.

Every five-finger discount a nail.

That beggar saint's cross above?

That's coded speech for the other Francis' declaration.

Remember first you are a sinner.

Remember next its consequence.

Tonight I commission a new dream.

No Sisyphus stone

rolled up again and again.

Another --- rolling sideways forever

on a barn door's wheels.

C. M. Carroll

winged migration