SPARK

Lynne Elizabeth Heiser

Inspiration piece

Barbara McLaren Bever

Response

Via Angelo

Via Angelo was their world.
Games of tag and hide-and-seek on its cobblestone streets.
Later dressed in communion whites
They paraded slowly up its length to the duomo
Anticipating their first taste of Christ’s body and blood
And a transformed life.

Under the watchful eye of Father Guiseppe
They learned their catechism and curricula.
He was an altar boy, she sang in the choir.
They shared notes, and gelatos and stolen kisses.
He carried her books in his leather satchel
As well as hopes for their future.

Her voice carried her north to Milan.
She became Puccini’s Mimi in La Boehme
Rossini’s Berta in The Barber of Seville.
His faith led him south to Rome.
He became Father Lorenzo.
Then a much-loved priest on Via Angelo.

She sang to the world.
He saved the world
And every newspaper clipping of her success
And every recording of her heavenly arias.
She married five husbands.
He married his parishioners.

Tragedy took her life before its time.
Her admirers filled the duomo on a warm summer day.
He said the mass and laid her to rest in the churchyard.
The angel he once placed upon her grave is now grayed.
Father Lorenzo rests in his worn leather chair
Still listening to the songs of his childhood sweetheart

On the Via Angelo. 

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