BY ANDI TALARICO
After Sacrifice
Catholics believe in magic, which is to say
Transubstantiation, which is really to say sleight
of hand, which is to say we
Believe a miracle occurs each time the holy man, ordained,
offers the water and the wine,
Just like that, from up their robes, they
Conjure the body, conjure the blood.
It is pivotal, the difference, the others who see mass as metaphor.
They are just pretending. It is enough to worship the idea.
But not us, see, watch the hands, use your nail,
scratch Papal and find pagan,
boiling, just beneath,
Denied and demoted like a bastard born son.
But see how far we’ve come,
Note we no longer need the offering
of your firstborn to the fire
Don’t have to hurl your kin into the maw of a pit
Don’t have to cut from the finest of your harvest
Don’t have to let go your plumpest sow.
Here, we’re evolved now, humane, now, let
this ministered man,
holy enough to be above you,
let him make his magic happen,
an alchemy of spirit to body
A glamour for the blind
We’ve made it for you.
A glamour so profound
Wreathed in the smoke of incense
Kept behind the altar
Beyond the pale
Between masses, babies, offered up.
We cry, bring us your youngest, your softest,
all the sons and daughters of Abraham,
And here is the lamb, and here is the slaughter,
The hunger too great, the appetite laid bare.
The sin of lust made greater by the sin of
Looking-away, the sin of never-asking,
The sin of teaching our young that
Sacrifice is the greatest name for love
Because after all, after all,
This is my body, which is given up for you.
Andi Talarico is a Brooklyn-based writer, reader, and witch. She’s the former host of At the Inkwell NYC, an international reading series. She's taught poetry in classrooms as a rostered artist, been a coach and judge for Poetry Out Loud, and her work has been featured in Luna Luna magazine, The Poetry Project, Yes Poetry, Ritual Poetica, and more. Her work has also been published by PaperKite Press and SwanDive Publishing. When she’s not working with stationery company Baronfig, you can find her dishing on astrology and culture on her podcast Astrolushes, co-hosted with Lisa Marie Basile.