FIRST COMMUNION

by Tom Fillion

It was our first communion

and we followed each other nervously

to the altar rail

made of Italian marble

We were like a line

of white ducklings

imprinting some invisible presence

into our sternums

that would glow

in the darkness

that we were told

we were made of

by the priest and nuns

dressed in night blindness

The radius of the Eucharist

we weren’t supposed to chew

like Bazooka Joe or Topps bubble gum

was eternity

and stuck to the roof

of our mouths like peanut butter

Jesus had suffered enough

in his time that even our mouths

with missing baby teeth

were not allowed to pierce

the thin geodesic wafer He inhabited

The festivities afterwards

were at the country club

where you and friends

in white communion clothes

similar to the deferential black waiters

were invited to sip dark, carbonated punch

from the circulating Alpine fountain,

and your Sicilian mother,

who was no taller

than all the first communicants

except for her wedding cake hair

piled high like a Gothic Cathedral,

beamed and smiled with stained-glass lipstick

until you ran with such abandon

and joy of the moment

towards the Olympic-sized pool outside

The pool had a fifteen-foot high dive

from which we did summertime cannonballs

and occasional belly flops

You were so elated

at celebrating your first communion

to receive the body and blood of Christ

that you didn’t see or remember

the sliding glass doors

that even Jesus

couldn’t have walked on or through

There were no butterflies

to warn you either,

and it shattered into pieces

as sharp as nine-inch nails

that drenched your innocent white suit

you were so proud of

with your own blood

the same crimson-red color

as the lights of the ambulance

that soon arrived

to take you away

to the emergency room

where the doctors transfused you

with candlelight left by strangers   

Tom Fillion is a graduate of the University of South Florida. His new novel, HUBBLY BUBBLY, is available at https://www.amazon.com/Thomas-Fillion/e/B00J938F2E.