Communion of Saints II – a poem by Fred Gallagher

Communion of Saints II

				for my goddaughter, Sylvia

Today I wrote another letter 
           to my goddaughter dying…
                                  who we know now, is dying.

And I think about the theatre curtain,
           wine-like and substantial that cloisters 
                                  us underlings from the players.

I told her if she went before me
           I would pray to her and petition her 
                                  for a stageful of intercessions, 

for seventy times seven
           consecrated props. It will, of course, 
                                  not be that tall crimson pall

but a veil sheer and willowy 
           as wings, perhaps Irish lace
                                  latticed and lustrous,

so that now I feel her breath 
           against my face, her
                                  breath against my face.
                          

Fred Gallagher is Editor-in-Chief at Good Will Publishers, Inc., the parent company of TAN Books and Saint Benedict Press. He is the author of three memorial volumes on bereavement and three children’s books on character development. He has also authored a novel entitled The Light Hiding in Spindle. Fred has published poetry in Agora, Sanskrit, Cold Mountain Review, and is the 2023 winner of the Prime Number Magazine Annual Poetry Award. He resides with his wife, Kim, in Charlotte, N.C.