To love a priest is nothing
new or even difficult
for Catholic girls, our role
model a handmaid, reported
to have said, ”Be it done unto me
according to His will”
Way before Zorro
or Johnny Cash
we were partial to men in black
loners smelling of soap and secrets
deeper than Mr. Rochester’s
We being the deepest, newly minted
women bent on drama and discovery
confident of absolution, fairest of all
in raiments of prayer and shamelessness
How lavish our devotion
how utterly requited, how bless-ed
our passion, the genuine article
like our randy wannabe saint
who knew how to make love
as if God were watching
Maureen Hossbacher
Maureen Hossbacher’s poetry & fiction has has appeared in such publications as Patterson Literary Review, Adelaide, Passager, Irish Echo, and in the anthology The Next Parish Over: A Collection of Irish American Writing (New Rivers Press). Her poetry chapbook, Lesser Known Saints, was published by Finishing Line Press in 2018. She taught writing for 20 years at Hunter College, City University of New York. Now retired, Maureen is having a great time grappling with two novels: a three-generation family saga and a horror mystery.
