Madison Street: Strange Gods

I took the title from the Baltimore Catechism (which we had to memorize, beginning in the first grade): 

The first commandment of God is: I am the Lord thy God; thou shalt not have strange gods before Me.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Strange Gods

 

Just one street west, on Main, Episcopalians

will socialize next Sunday on the broad

expanse outside their hall, weather permitting.

I’m leery of them. Not that they are aliens,

but we’ve been taught there’s only One True God.

Ours. My going there would mean committing

heresy, were I to dare partake

of their whipped cream, their strawberries, their cake.

 

And so I wait. But wait. Come mid-July’s

annual shindig, blessed with Catholic prayer,

boxty, cabbage rolls and pasty pies,

all stripes of Protestants have come to share

our festival. Next June I’ll do likewise,

though I be damned. Though mother yank my hair.

 

 

My primary school, St. John the Evangelist, Wilkes-Barre, PA (now converted into apartments)