Ascension, An Ode

By John Henry Carrozza

My mind was heavy,

As the spatula in my hand was not,

And through the dense steam of boiling cabbage

I beheld a face, a smile, and a serenity,

The ticking of her biological clock,

As she drifts off to sleep.

"Parchesi!" I cried, and was swallowed by the open mouths which gaped

upon the faces of the players in the bingo hall. Several of the faces were the

same as those which the week before had witnessed my victory when the

emcee announced "B-9!" and I declared "You sunk my battleship!" like on

the television, only to have my prize denied because my card, due to an

egregious misprint, lacked a "G" column. This week, I chose my card more

I had left the window open, because the fan was on, and it created a

generous draft, which gave me a cold, and so a cat had climbed in and was

asleep in my favorite chair when I awoke. This was alright, since I only sit

there in the afternoons, but when I read the clock that said two A.M. I sat

there anyway, and the cat, being annoyed, leapt to the floor and began

clawing at the leg of the chair, only it turned out to be my leg, and so it hurt

a bit. Then I noticed a man standing behind the sofa wearing a headset and

holding a sign that said "Go Back to Bed," so I did, and when I awoke my

house had been stolen - except for the hope chest at my feet, which was

empty. Full Of Grace.

The cat was purring beneath a towering mushroom, or was it a toadstool,

and I realized that I was hungry. Since I had no kitchen, I began to nibble

the grass around me. Grazing relaxed me, I discovered, and eventually I

was asleep again, and when I awoke for the third time that morning it was

night, and I was lying on a hill beside a stone that read "R.I.P.," and I

length of a Hypostyle Hall, where light filtered in from above, stirring no

dust. As I glanced around, I became aware that the columns were carved

into a female shape, and upon a closer gaze I knew that I was seeing her

face again, as I always do, and I wanted to press my lips to hers, but the

figure was too high and I could not reach her shoulders, so I wrapped my

arms around her waist and pressed my face to her cold, stony skin, and I

thought that I could hear the churning of her heart, only distant, as a train

beyond the soft horizon. Blessed Are Thee Among Women.

And then, I was standing alone in a Herculean lecture hall, my students a

gallery of attentive feline creatures, each posed in mid-bath, fur slicked,

forepaw extended beneath a daintly extended tongue, eyes transfixed upon

the stage. Then, like a script I had never studied, I began to recite - the

words pushing their way from my throat, past my moving lips, and rippling

across the crowd:

As the whistle finally drowned our sighs,

Then 'chug' and fainter 'chug...'

Til only barking dogs and clouds remained,

If only just to fade

While the Autumn evening fell apart

Before my glass-like eyes, at last

leaving me suspended, borne aloft that very tree

Which now is burning in the hearth,

At least that part of which is me, and so

Leaflike, I turn to thee to bid

"Jesus," said the man.

and the screen was erased by a blackness and a tiny white dot that slowly

faded, and I sat there until it was gone, and then I stood up and stretched,

wondering where had the time gone and had I forgotten the milk

simultaneously, at which point I stumbled into the kitchen and invaded the

Frigidaire. After determining that there was no milk to be found, I closed

the door slowly, trying to catch the light at the instant it went out, but I

could not, so I finished the crossword puzzle and thought about that face

until I wanted to scream, but dared not, for my throat was sore from the

cold. Somewhere in New York City, I thought, is a deli that is run by a

gentile, and someday he will be very rich and make a good husband, but not

today. Holy Mary.

"Electra, is that you?"

"Then who is at the door?"

"It is only your conscience. Please let me in."

"But, how should I know that it is you, and not the Devil in disguise?

"Because the Devil always knocks twice."

"Oh," and she opened the door.

Mother Of God.

aisle, and in the corner of your eye a lamb stumbles by, awkwardly jumping

a fence and returning to the queue. You think it will never end, so you start

to cry, and your cheeks turn to roses and your headband to thorns, and soon

it is over and you hurry from the shadows where He waits, and the smoke

from the candles rises to the cross on the battered wall. Pray For Us

As the lights were raised and the room came into focus, I was once

more alone in the auditorium - only one cat remained in its seat, but this

was asleep, and so it I did not regard. Heavy I felt as I walked off the stage,

and my head swam several laps around the pool and then said to my body:

"Come on in, the water's warm," and so I dived into sleep and could not lift

the veil of darkness or even see its face as I became aware of a misguided

sheep and a certain face which I knew would never fade, or at least not all

at once. Now And At The Hour Of Our Death.