Ave

Ave

          I had a vision
of who I might have been
          had I not declared myself
one of my Church's queers,
          House Faggot
for the English profession:

          A quiet, arthritic Episcopalian
winked at me from his pew
          where he knelt before Mary,
having come from tea
          after his lecture
on the Rhetoric of Bleak House.
          I thanked him for his self-sacrifice.