in my altar boy youth
i made up sins for Confession
so at least i could tell the truth
about lying

in college I gave up 
rooting for the St. Louis Cardinals 
and my Catholicism on the same day,
then i stopped shaving 
and getting haircuts

these days when i go to church
for funerals and weddings 
i try to follow the rituals
and take Communion,
my relatives look at me sideways

i don’t know what place
the Cardinals are in this year
but I am hoping that the new pope
will allow women priests

my grandson asks if I’m a hippie
I say:  You might say that. Have you
been studying the 60’s in history class?
It was all about peace and love.
We hoped for less of a police state
and for more of a state of grace.  

now that old age covers my skin
with warts and wrinkles and moles 
I realize my outer self is a reflection
of my inner self, I have yet to make
a good act of contrition