Mona

Moña

Sito Sasieta

I want to ride the crest
of this song. I want
to close my eyes
& pray until
my mind
squeezes
the dark
& I see
my father
on bended
knee, genuflecting
atop the board
that descends
the waves
of San
Bartolo. In my dreams
I see the swell
break
& curl,
the huge
turquoise
slam,
my papi
licking the sand,
the line break
of his tongue
vowing not to clam up
before hitting the lip.

Each wave
is like a moña.

Suddenly, you are inside
the barrel
of the song.
You can hear
the harsh
brass
of John the Baptist.

The Gospel can be as sweet
as salt
that you
swallowed
from the rim
of the horn

where you’ll drown
in the waves
of a new sound

on a beach
where Christ
is revising the canon
of holy
with an ax

chopping
your inscrutable
hermeneutics
into chaff
& sand

---

Sito Sasieta
Poet

Alfonso “Sito” is a caregiver, poet, dancer, and father. He works in a L’Arche community, near Washington DC, where adults with & without intellectual disabilities share their lives together. He has recently had poems published or forthcoming in America Media, Cold Mountain Review, Presence, Pensive, Windhover, Sojourners, The Christian Courier and elsewhere.

Photography by Samuel Jean Butler