Religious Allegiance

 

Religious allegiance

Is a name on the blackboard

In the front of the schoolroom.


Loyalty pledged

Between eight and three,

While waiting for the bell

To free us.

The moment of exquisite pleasure

Arrives only at midnight

In someone else's house,


A raid on the icebox by pajama party.

Faith is coming home from school,

And finding everything as one left it,

Sitting down for just a moment

On one's own bed,

A gift of silence owned.

 

- Sally Clay
August 5, 1992

*** Sharewrite 2005 Sally Clay ***
Permission is granted for personal distribution of this document
as long as it is unchanged in any way and this notice is included.
For permission to reprint it for general publication, contact me at
zangmo@sallyclay.net.

 


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