YOUNG GIRLS CHRISTENED WITH NAMES OF SAINTS…..

YOUNG GIRLS CHRISTENED WITH NAMES OF SAINTS…..

in the hurriedness of the bloom of teenaged heat
recite dutiful daytime promises. Rosaries

soon forgotten in reverberations of electric guitars
accompanied by neon streaked hair scented

by a studded leather subculture.
Young girls dressed in names of saints ache.

Encumbered by pleated skirts
of plaid supervision just as their mothers before them -

who never realized their parents could feel
the blush of teenaged heat. Or speak a language

only understood in the restlessness of youth.
Young girls swear the names of saints

as they smart from the public sting
of wooden parochial rule.

Only to sneak secret puffs of supposed cigarette sophistication.
On lips that crave caresses sweetened

by cherry—coke syrup which stains pink-tongues
the deep blood colour of awakened nipples

corseted in starched spotless white shirts
that smell of laundered uniform purity.

Young girls invoke the name of saints
watched over by that statue of the Madonna.

Unlike any video star; steadfast and approachable.
Dressed in robes of porcelain patinaed piety.

Eroded in certain scumbled spots where
anxious hands hurriedly rub gold crosses.

While prayers are said before first dates for luck
in flames from votive candles

that send out sparks of giddy expectation.
Which makes hair burnished and brushed Renoir-red

brighter than a Magdalene’s burning.
Young girls intoxicated with the swirl of secrets,

travel throughout old neighborhoods where
the night summons them - from cloistered rooms

to stairs of roof top walk—ups.
Which leads always to the most basic

and worrisome desires.In the natural air
of unrepentant stormy youth charged

with an electricity of sex.Young girls watch
as their mothers kneel in the sacred shadow

of a faience figure.Which glistens with comfort and inner peace.
Mothers now painfully aware of how

teenagers grow and couple lost in devotion.
As they reverently pray just as their mothers

before them - yet hoping to summon
and invoke the help of protecting saints.