TICKET TO HEAVEN
Can’t sleep, so I get on Ebay and find
a vintage prayer card, early 1930s, made in France.
A boy is weeping and behind him stands
a consoling pink-robed child Jesus.
Si je pleure, the card reads,
c’est parce que je vous ai fait de la peine.
I buy the card.
It arrives in a small box,
tracked and insured, from a farmhouse
in Yukon, Oklahoma.
There is way too much bubble wrap.
The seller, a Reverend Bob, adds as a bonus,
a yellow, Admit One, Paid for by the Blood of Jesus,
Ticket to Heaven.
Cesse de sangloter, essuie tes larmes,
consoles the French-speaking young Jesus.
But the child brushes Him off: Laissez-moi pleurer,
mes larmes sont si douces quand
elles coulent pour vous. This troubles me.
Even more so than the Saran Wrap
with which Reverend Bob
attached the Ticket to the card.
And I still can’t sleep.
So I put the married up cards in a dovetailed box
marked This CODFISH is from GENUINE
Atlantic Coast Codfish packed at Gloucester, Mass.
Where the boy can weep forever.
And Jesus can save.