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After Morning Mass

Poem [1]
November 29, 2010 [2]
Tom Furlong [3]
for Bob Leonard, 1931-2009

Look!” you cried out,
Voice booming across
The parking lot, spinning me
Round in my tracks.
Cancer wracked,
You raised your right arm
And pointed an index finger
To the white gull perched
Atop the cross at steeple’s top.
The bird took off and we grinned
At each other, arms outstretched
In the mid-winter air as if to embrace
What was and wasn’t there
Before we got into our cars
And went our separate ways,
That fingertip of yours alive with praise.

Poems by Tom Furlong have appeared in America, Commonweal and The New York Times.

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Source URL: http://americamagazine.org/issue/757/poem/after-morning-mass

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[1] http://americamagazine.org/sections/poem
[2] http://americamagazine.org/toc-past/2010-11-29
[3] http://americamagazine.org/users/tom-furlong