thirty-three
By: Theresa Rogers
as a child in Catholic school
I was made to pray
in church I slid off the pew
to the kneeling board
to repent as I was told
a fat Bishop slapped my face
to welcome me I didn’t believe
then you left in your Jesus year
it was not the blue hour or gold
but deep night when you walked
out into the world
to leave it and us behind
I would get on my knees
now and every day
not to pray but as a beggar
I might even be humbled
by the gift of pink streaks across
my cheek if it would matter
Theresa Rogers is a Vancouver-based poet and teacher who spends part of her year in Wellfleet, Massachusetts. Her poems have appeared in the English Bay Review, Uppagus, The Cape Cod Poetry Review, Cape Cod Times poetry page, and The San Diego Reader. She recently won second prize, emerging poets, in the Vancouver Poet Laureate City Poems Contest. She received an MFA in poetry from Antioch, Lost Angeles and serves on the board of poetry in Canada. theresarogerspoet.com