Two Eucharist Poems

Take and eat,
You say.
But
taking
requires more of my self
than I can offer.
So
I eat in vain,
hoping to swallow nothing more
than bread.

—K.C. Flynn

Darkness pours through crystal flutes
Filling sour Riesling with speckles of
shadow.

Turning red, every crimson speck
marring
Crystal clear white with a blood stain.

This is the cup I poured upon
threshing the chaff of life

Ashes flood my nostrils
Blacken my eyes
Cover my poverty:
Broken bread.

I leave the ash on my forehead
Bread in my mouth
Bending down
Convulsing in Pauline schizophrenia.

A dove hovers over my meal
With coals as tongue and lamps as eyes.

by Thomas Turner