qui tollis peccata mundi, dona eis requiem*


Bejesus we walked so far!
It was beautiful country, mind,
feet dappling through hedgerows
that led from the city, in silence,
to rest where all flesh shall come.

I remember how it started,
walled in with the others.
Lord you could dance!
How were they to comprehend
that the kink in my arm
and your off-beat jive
could lead us unguided
to narrow pathways forcing single file?

                    By a river we sat together—
amid long words and fingerprints
your skin bled dark with guilt
and for my part I saw coracles
sprout upon your breath.
We weighed down these little craft
with the chains of our sins
and tied fast the bones of our future
as payment for the ferryman.

One day perhaps, the river will dissolve to ash,
revealing our two disciples
discarded as the chance to heal,
                    there will be love
                    like a great and gentle pulse
mingling with cold stones
and memories our
downcast eyes, cheekbones to the fore.

Novis te cantabo chordis,
O novelletum quod ludis
In solitudine cordis.

Esto sertis implicata,
Ô femina delicata
Per quam solvuntur peccata !

Sicut beneficum Lethe,
Hauriam oscula de te,
Quae imbuta es magnete.

Quum vitiorum tempegtas
Turbabat omnes semitas,
Apparuisti, Deitas,

Velut stella salutaris
In naufragiis amaris...
Suspendam cor tuis aris !

Piscina plena virtutis,
Fons æternæ juventutis
Labris vocem redde mutis !

Quod erat spurcum, cremasti ;
Quod rudius, exaequasti ;
Quod debile, confirmasti.

In fame mea taberna
In nocte mea lucerna,
Recte me semper guberna.

Adde nunc vires viribus,
Dulce balneum suavibus
Unguentatum odoribus !

Meos circa lumbos mica,
O castitatis lorica,
Aqua tincta seraphica ;

Patera gemmis corusca,
Panis salsus, mollis esca,
Divinum vinum, Francisca !

Magnus honor, magna gloria
Te adamare, omnia creata
judicare transitoria.

Felix anima ac beata
quae de mundo se ipsa cavet
et solatia sola habet
in Te, Redemptor peccata.

Rex caelestis, Vir doloris,
benedictus sis, quia estis
*** Maria fonte amoris...
Vir doloris, Rex caelestis.