An Encounter with the Paraclete.
By Brigidh Duffey.
“Two doors and six stair-steps up, the senior altar boys / show me how best to climb a wooden ladder“
Secret Ladder by Myron Swistun.
Catholics learn early in life to count:
The sins between stackable chair and chair,
The white nights between Lent and release,
The days between one moment and their last.
Two doors and six stair-steps up, the senior altar boys
show me how best to climb a wooden ladder—
rung by rung, seven slats into the blackness
that kisses every mystery of the holy attic.
But if I pinch the memory just so, it’s a ladder
to heaven. Someone is singing a hymn I haven’t
heard before, a hymn about wine and water.
The attic-sky is spackled with stars:
eight, twelve, seventeen, ninety-six.
The Blood Pudding – October 13, 2020
Brigidh Duffey lives in Brooklyn with two demanding cats. She studied Anthropology and Gender Studies at Mount Holyoke College. Her poetry explores gender, spirit, and identity. Her work has appeared in Panoply and From Whispers to Roars.
Artist: Myrun Swistun’s art speaks of other dimensions, timelessness, and harmony between disparate elements. You can find more about his work here.