I know you’re spying over me.
A little here; a little there, like a fly
that keeps showing up
in the car three hours away,
at mass while little bells ring,
and at poolside while typing.
I see your wings in each pass.
So I thought nothing of how I lost
two hundred plus paper cutlets
after pulling out one thin slice
to place in the fishing basket.
I just figured you knew better than I
about distributing to those here in need
I love you
I wish the world loved you
when love had liberty
to care for the sick, the suffering, and those held captive by it
I wish your husband loved you
when love vowed before its creator
to endure in sickness and health, and even through death
I wish I loved you, too
when love had arms
to wrap around and squeeze
even with empty arms
Walk with me, you say
Every mile is worth revisiting
Twenty years of life now gone
But I am with you
That note under the front cover was for you
All the poems and dreams
Splashed across pages, were for you too
Even to the completion of the age
In the midst of the congregation the praise of Christ is hymned because of you, O Reader Joseph. Through your life at the kliros, the humble path to exaltation is made manifest, illumined with the transcendent beauty of angelic melodies. By your constancy and loyalty, standing in praise and prayer, the way of salvation is guided and guarded for us. In keeping vigils, you brightened the path leading to our unending joy. Therefore we celebrate your light-giving and holy memory, and we cry aloud in one accord: Intercede with Christ our God that our feet would be made to stand dutifully in all divine allotments of service, with our hearts stationed on Him within the Great Congregation of ineffable praises, so that we, too, would be kept from straying onto evil paths and all attain the unity of faith and the knowledge of God’s unapproachable glory.