{"id":1114,"date":"2018-07-02T19:43:00","date_gmt":"2018-07-02T19:43:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/libblogs.luc.edu\/requited\/?p=1114"},"modified":"2021-08-04T19:37:39","modified_gmt":"2021-08-04T19:37:39","slug":"tartarus-appears-in-a-catholic-middle-school","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/libblogs.luc.edu\/requited\/2018\/07\/02\/tartarus-appears-in-a-catholic-middle-school\/","title":{"rendered":"Tartarus Appears in a Catholic Middle School"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
<\/div>\n\n\n

1.<\/p>\n

Start at Our Lady\u2019s gazebo, where all curse<\/p>\n

words are learned and saint cards are traded<\/p>\n

like baseball heroes. I give up three St. Lucy\u2019s<\/p>\n

for a shiny St. Cecilia. I want harps and wings<\/p>\n

on my side, I want whatever I say to sing.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

The church is for honors and pamphlets<\/p>\n

and quick announcements, organ music<\/p>\n

so every celebration is a funeral.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

I receive what I need to receive<\/p>\n

but cause trouble by refusing to kneel,<\/p>\n

telling all the pierced ears in the pews<\/p>\n

about the nine circles.<\/p>\n

Dante was Catholic, it\u2019s okay.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Dante? Damian? That\u2019s the devil\u2019s name!<\/em><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

When my voice is taken from me,<\/p>\n

I study the mural of a bare-chested angel,<\/p>\n

imagine him descending on the altar, giving me<\/p>\n

his spear.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

2.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Continue to the cafeteria,<\/p>\n

priests with ruddy cheeks and new sports cars<\/p>\n

asking children to rise before pizza.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

No detours until faced with the Girl Trinity:<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Amber C. more metal than teeth, gaping<\/p>\n

at the stage where she\u2019ll splay herself out<\/p>\n

as if creating a snow angel, emitting<\/p>\n

her cyborg rage.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Diana T. dropping her grizzly<\/p>\n

restaurateur father\u2019s name<\/p>\n

like a Bronxian queen.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Jaimee B. with her arm in a cast,
soon where the needles would be.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

I am still talking cards when they look<\/p>\n

at my wrists and ask me to check my nails.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Does he look at them like us? Does he need polish?<\/em><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

The Girl Trinity laughs,<\/p>\n

never in unison but<\/p>\n

one right after the other. Taking cue.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

I wonder where my patron saint of voice has gone.<\/p>\n

My pocket is empty and<\/p>\n

I cry.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

3.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

There\u2019s no wonder why in time<\/p>\n

the boys will be called users or players:<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 videogame emotional gamut\/gauntlet<\/p>\n

running like the hallways,<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

everything coming in tallies and levels,<\/p>\n

including a gauge for intimacy<\/p>\n

with the librarian\u2014<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

marking off<\/p>\n

their advances,<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

talk of tattooing only the longest consecutives.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

When I discover this binary is not my language,<\/p>\n

I confess to having lovely thoughts<\/p>\n

about a boy in votive shadow,<\/p>\n

his choir voice deepening<\/p>\n

and mine going higher and higher<\/p>\n

until we\u2019ve both ascended<\/p>\n

and I\u2019ve forgotten all about the angel in the mural.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

I\u2019m given penance.<\/p>\n

Prayers in quantities suggested by priests,<\/p>\n

numbers for the infallible.<\/p>\n

Despite my transgressions,<\/p>\n

I\u2019m told I have a calling to the priesthood.<\/p>\n

There are winks, like they know me.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

My mantle must be incandescent.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

4.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Due to a user\u2019s memorial,<\/p>\n

the palm festival is cancelled and so<\/p>\n

the Girl Trinity gets on stage<\/p>\n

(pillars of the griefletting pantheon)<\/p>\n

to perform a story from Revelation.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Our Judgment has come and anticipating<\/p>\n

violence, ketchup is thrown in eyes.<\/p>\n

Someone thinks they hear a bat in the rafters.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

I consider the priesthood<\/p>\n

of a religion of my own making,<\/p>\n

living monastically.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

5.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

In our last year, rounding the gazebo:<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

The school decides to plant a plum tree<\/p>\n

in remembrance of the organist\u2019s son,<\/p>\n

a teacher who taught the users how to play.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

He did not tell me to join the priesthood,<\/p>\n

but shook his head, no no no no no.<\/p>\n

Be happy, instead.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Noticing my frequent tears, he wrote me<\/p>\n

a note and included a card of my patron saint.<\/p>\n

I don\u2019t know how he knew, but I think<\/p>\n

about how we can get him canonized.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

I make sure no one sees when I bury his note<\/p>\n

under the leaves, when the plums grow fat<\/p>\n

as my doubts.<\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Now,\u00a0\u00a0 after all that<\/p>\n

morning news,<\/p>\n

another elegy.<\/p>\n\n\n

<\/div>\n\n\n

Joseph Dante<\/strong> lives in Plantation, Florida with his husband and two cats. His work has been featured in Permafrost, South Florida Poetry Journal, The Rumpus, PANK, Corium,<\/em> and elsewhere. He was a finalist for the 2016 Lascaux Prize for Poetry.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

1. Start at Our Lady\u2019s gazebo, where all curse words are learned and saint cards are traded like baseball heroes. I give up three St. Lucy\u2019s for a shiny St. Cecilia. I want harps and wings on my side, I<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":384,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[9926],"tags":[22233],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/libblogs.luc.edu\/requited\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1114"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/libblogs.luc.edu\/requited\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/libblogs.luc.edu\/requited\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/libblogs.luc.edu\/requited\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/384"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/libblogs.luc.edu\/requited\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1114"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/libblogs.luc.edu\/requited\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1114\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2044,"href":"https:\/\/libblogs.luc.edu\/requited\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1114\/revisions\/2044"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/libblogs.luc.edu\/requited\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1114"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/libblogs.luc.edu\/requited\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1114"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/libblogs.luc.edu\/requited\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1114"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}