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| Pope Francis confessed Thursday that he took the rosary cross of his late confessor from his casket and wears it to this day in a fabric pouch under his cassock. He said he did so telling the late priest, "Give me half your mercy." --ABC News, March 6, 2014 |
The Pope speaks
of how once he lifted a cross
from a corpse’s fingers,
left roses
in its place, and now
carries that theft
with him always
under his clothes.
Those innocent
severed roses still rot
in the dark of the tomb
where mercy is nowhere to be found
and there’s no redemption
or resurrection
to be had
as a crime is revealed,
no one is shocked, and once again
everything stays the same.
Tony Brown is a poet from Worcester, MA. He works as a consultant and writer.