Faith Observed

Outside - one winter’s night,
I stood cold witness by frosted holy glass,
and caressed with fingers a stained window;
prayed a round wet circle,
and spied uninvited through God’s portal,
- a congregation;
raising sanguine crystal chalice,
to sacred cloth.

Faith, dressed in father’s florescent face,
looked back and caught my soul’s reach;
beckoned to some rapture apparition.
But ice, warmed from breath on ruby glass,
now dripped blood tears;
- distorting faith’s view,
as the undeserved collar turned to go.