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  • Blue Aster
  • William Kelley Woolfitt (bio)

1896

Flee from the vows. Go among trumpet gentiansand fire lilies, take from the high hidden field one aster,sleeping blue star. Become a hermit laborer, give away

Brother Alberic’s tidy habit, put on the threadbare blouseand trousers of Charles the peasant. Press the asterin the tiny antique book, gospel of the beloved, pouched

and hanging against the chest. Sail to Jaffa, coastof Palestine, for eight days walk the road-ruts,blistered, crumb-fed, footsore. Flower that mothers call

little queen marguerites. Remember again, the Eternalwalked here, bore the cross on His back like an oxloaded with timbers. From a relic seller, buy a nub

of the sponge lifted to the Eternal’s parched lips, keep itnear the aster, faded blue. On St. Colette’s Feast,arrive in Nazareth, come upon the Poor Clares’ Convent,

kneel with them in their chapel for the Expositionof the Blessed Bread. When the sisters leave for supper,offer to keep watch for the one who stays back to linger

with the sacred bread. Put a brittle aster petal on the altar,adore the corpus christi while she cracks the door,thinking she will catch a tramp who means to steal

the silver vessels and tray. Agree to work for the mothersuperior as a handyman. When she pinches her nose,brings a pail of water and soap that stings, give her [End Page 244]

the filthy clothes; keep from her the dear book, the aster,snuffed blue dust; let water move over skin, a lavish hand.For wages, take the hovel behind the convent that sleeps

one with a pillow of stone, used papers for meditationsand letters, mustard greens and heels of bread. [End Page 245]

William Kelley Woolfitt

William Kelley Woolfitt teaches creative writing and American literature at Lee University in Cleveland, TN. He is the author of a book of poetry, Beauty Strip (Texas Review Press, forthcoming), and a fiction chapbook, The Boy with Fire in His Mouth (Fiction Southeast, 2014). His poems and stories have appeared in many journals, including Shenandoah, Michigan Quarterly Review, Threepenny Review, and River Styx. These poems belong to a larger collection, Charles of the Desert (Paraclete Press, forthcoming), a book-length sequence about the life of Charles de Foucauld. wwoolfitt@leeuniversity.edu

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