The Blue Moon Review

Novice
by Terry Savoie

	"Take away a man's mask
	 and there'll be a cold sun
	 And there only the dead bask"
						Gregory Corso


Benedictine thru & thru, the Brother broods
his way along Old Saint Joe's, that long
abandoned logging road.  Beyond & above
the thickening pines, morning breaks open

as golden & surprisingly tender as a young
hen's yolk on his breakfast platter.  Brother
is the mirror of Christ, sporting his newly
recycled, tire-tread sandals ordered express

freight from the environmentally conscious
outdoorsman's catalog (but sockless?)
while his head is crowned for this occasion
in a knitted-blue, watch cap although it's 

in the dead middle of a tinder-dry August.
Black gnats, legions of them, halo the divine
steam lifting off.  This novice is simplifying,
head bowed, ignoring the miraculous, doe-

eyed coed, long-legged, jogging toward him
along the forest road.  How much calmer, even
than the Lord himself, could he possibly be?
Ignorance & sin, once again, thank heaven,

swiftly pass on by.

								Collegeville, MN
									- August, 1993