For Msgr. Joseph P. Lehman Ave maris stella we sang in the night the night of the day we learned of your death Hail Mary, star of the sea sea star, shimmering brightly electric peach, slick and muscular among the green braids of kelp clinging to the crags to the flinted, wave-weary shore
solve vincla reis we sang, and the waves rocked us she rocked us in our cradle wet with tears of comfort moist with lullaby swaddled in sound, in cloth and sea milk nourishing mother of God swaying perilously, we swim on the lips of a great, liquid cavern balancing above the abyss above the tumult and trembling depths at the precipice of despair wrapped, entombed in linen tossed, teetering over vast waters grasping tightly to our minds, lest they wander wandering to the deep hollows of sand and rock to bottomless swells of grief, currents of terror shrouding the lurking monsters in the leagues of sinking coldness
Warm of heart, soft of word,
young in spirit you were
although your thin, brave body
was no longer young
but not yet old
profer lumen cæcis
As a child
already devout and dark-eyed
did the night awaken you with black fingers
soaking you with her terrors
did your little limbs quiver
with sweating screams
caught in the ebony crevices of dream
pursued by the squid, the whale
the unnamed, tentacled creatures
grasping you by elbow, by knee
pulling you down to the swirling depths?
Monstra te esse matrem
when you lay in the hospital bed
under fluorescent lights
in the white, antiseptic room
with beeps and buzzes of machines
lab coats and ominous clipboards
did you open your senses
bare your fearless heart
make an offering of your eyes, your ears
drink in wafts of salt-thickened air?
feel the rush of waves?
the sea’s roar giving way to melody?
iter para tutum
did you discern the voice of Mary--
ethereal, like a mermaid
did you follow her willingly
calling you down
through that place
dark, wet, and churning?
