WHEN I DIE I WANT TO BE A CAPITAL "S" SAINT

by Elise Kazanjian

just like Carlo Acutis, the first millennial

saint, appointed by Pope Leo XIV.

There may be a problem. He was

fifteen. I’m 90. One of the last saintly

nonagenarians was St. Anthony 

The Great, 3rd century.

 

Rev. Anthony Gerber in St. Louis

explains there are capital ‘S’ saints 

and lowercase ‘s’ saints in heaven. 

Carlo is a capital ‘S’ 

pronounced infallibly

in heaven by the Catholic Church. 

 

Until my demise I hope to

follow Carlo’s example to insure I

too not only get into heaven, but am a 

big ‘S’ saint. And it will be taxing—

he observed a no-nonsense daily

life, a hard act to follow.

 

Carlo Attended Daily Mass—

I confess I go to the Armenian Church 

mostly on high holidays

like Easter to enjoy

sumptuous delights, ie,

Khourabia, a cookie that melts

in my mouth.   

 

Carlo Converted His peers/friends—

Most of my peers/friends 

seem happy in what they believe, 

and do not believe.

I would be remiss trying to change

them, and probably would acquire

a guilt complex which I don’t need.

 

Carlo Launched a Website Cataloguing Miracles—

I have trouble just with basic computer knowledge 

let alone miracles. I break out in a sweat 

when texting, sending photos, 

or emailing big corporations 

slamming them for their slimy

practices in charging outrageous fees.

Carlo Is Known as “God’s Influencer”—

Frankly, I would prefer 

being a Social Media Influencer 

like Masoom Minawalu

who promotes women’s rights, 

and empowers people of India 

to succeed in their individual endeavors.

 

Carlo’s Body Rests In A Glass Fronted Tomb—

The faithful come to pay their respects to this

young saint. I assume I have another ten years.

At 100, my body will not be that great

to look at. I will choose another burial

practice. Meanwhile, I’ll say a prayer to Carlo,

and hope that someday I can join him as a big ‘S’ saint.

A San Francisco poet, Elise Kazanjian's work has appeared in the 2025 Marin Poetry Center Anthology, Season Lightly With Salt, Our California, Vistas & Byways, the San Francisco Chronicle, among others. She has worked at Sunset Magazine, as Foreign Editor, CCTV, Beijing, China, and as a San Francisco pawnbroker.

WHAT POPE LEO MIGHT BE THINKING

by Lynne Barnes

Your mother was ill and away

when you were very little.

Did this mean that one of your

foundation beams was laid out as clay,

creating that listing psychic gait

that seems to have hobbled you

since toddlerhood?

 

Your early language threw darts

of defense against harm inside

your family’s nest of punishment

alternating with neglect.

You began sharpening knives

of revenge, destructiveness

back then, just to survive.

As you matured, you were mentored

by those who were traumatized like you.

 

Oh, if only your resilient spirit had been

gifted just a little more warmth

at your first hearth, perhaps your sense of

self-worth would not have become pea-sized,

inside and protected by, a hot air balloon.

Heated molecules of fear inflate

that bubble of space around your core.

 

Your borders are so thin and vulnerable

that you must strike first, slur people away

to feel safe, and your re-tells of conversations

all have others referring to you as sir.

 

You use loser, lowlife, liddle, lightweight,

for others. And for yourself you say

tremendous, perfect, winner, greatest,

and speak with clueless pride

that other humans kiss your ass.

 

You, dear sir, learned so early to strike first,

before anyone could breach your fragile border,

see the size of your ego infirmity,

but now, power has enriched, fused your childhood’s

uranium grains into a global nuclear cruelty.

 

We must fight, drain your power, disarm you whose wounds

block you from the language of human love and care.

As we face off we’re terrified, but also Sad!—witnessing

a fellow human walled off from the beauty of empathy as prayer.

Lynne Barnes is a retired psychiatric nurse and librarian who has lived in San Francisco since 1969. Her poetry memoir, Falling into Flowers (Blue Light Press, 2017) was a finalist for the 2018 Eric Hoffer Book Award.

THE GOOD NEWS

by Joanne De Simone Reynolds

AI-generated image from Dreamstime.

for

billions:

 

white

bird

 

column 

of 

smoke:

 

America’s

leonine

antidote

 

to

vice

 

injustices 

 

+ dogedom 

 

Joanne De Simone Reynolds watches the progress of the nation and the world from the shoreline of the Atlantic Ocean. Some of her work can be viewed at http://theumbrellaarts.org/

PEACE TO ALL

by Indran Amirthanayagam

Many people who worked with Pope Leo XIV when he was Bishop Robert Prevost of Chiclayo, Peru, couldn’t hold back tears when his election was announced on May 8. For them, it was not just a sign that God answered their prayers for a new pope who would follow Francis’s path, but also the confirmation that they had been guided by an extraordinary leader. —CRUX, May 9, 2025

Peace be with you. 

We are suffering 
the pandemic. 
We are hungry 
and we need 
to breathe. 

We need 
oxygen tanks 
in Chiclayo. 
I will get you 
the tanks. 

We need food. 

We need to walk 
the empty streets
and knock on 
every door
and leave 

food and water.

We need to bring 
the sick to hospital 
and help them to breathe. 

This is pastoral work.
This is Archbishop 
Robert Prevost,
now Pope Leo 
the Fourteenth.

Indran Amirthanayagam has just published his translation of Kenia Cano’s Animal For The Eyes (Dialogos Books, 2025). Other recent publications include Seer (Hanging Loose Press) and The Runner's Almanac (Spuyten Duyvil). He is the translator of Origami: Selected Poems of Manuel Ulacia (Dialogos Books). Mad Hat Press published his love song to Haiti: Powèt Nan Pò A (Poet of the Port). Ten Thousand Steps Against the Tyrant (BroadstoneBooks) is a collection of Indran's poems. He edits The Beltway Poetry Quarterly and helps curate Ablucionistas. He hosts the Poetry Channel on YouTube and publishes poetry books with Sara Cahill Marron at Beltway Editions.