Catechism

I flip pages looking for words I know and whistle a tune that looks familiar, trying to stay calm while I wait for the arrival of the footsteps I’ve heard on the porch since I sat down. I can’t judge their distance over the hum of heartbeats, pulse in my ear. Of course, no one comes, no spirit or living person bursts in upon me today, in a chapel not really too far distant from tourists in a potter’s studio, steamrollers repaving the main county highway. Still, the gravestones and oaks and I wait, breath held for the Bridegroom as the dappled light covers everything, the world seen through some thin veil. ß Julie Swarstad Johnson Author biography Julie Swarstad Johnson is the author of a poetry chapbook, Jumping the Pit (Finishing Line Press, 2015). Her poems have appeared in Passages North, The Hollins Critic, Architrave, and others; she regularly contributes book reviews to Harvard Review Online. A graduate of the MFA program at Penn State, she lives in Tucson, Arizona, where she works as a Library Assistant at the University of Arizona Poetry Center. Catechism First dilemma: fall or climb higher? Sneakered feet wedged between cobblestones, Fingers clasping cobbles above, I remained immobile, Rigid with fear, fixed between earth and sky. 160 Christianity & Literature 66(1) The stone bridge arched the bridle path, tall enough To allow horse and rider to pass, not quite twice The height of my bored father but alpine to a small boy. I could close my eyes and plunge like the rebellious angels. I’d been granted ascension, but only so high, Like innocents whose hearts burst before baptism. I wouldn’t weep. I wouldn’t call ‘‘Father!’’ I took a breath And cupped one palm on a fat round stone, thrust a toe Into a shallow cleft and hoisted my bones toward God. Cobble by cobble I scaled the wall until I tumbled over, Featherless creature stunned on the footpath. Dirt-flecked and dumb, I gazed up at my father who’d strolled that winding walkway. He spoke my name. I was still alive. And still his only son. ß Michael Waters Author biography Michael Waters’ recent books include Celestial Joyride (BOA Editions, 2016) and Selected Poems (UK: Shoestring Press, 2011). He teaches at Monmouth University in NJ. Poetry 161 ...