the calling

as a girl my mother prayed
for the stigmata
to pass her by. let
the hand remain whole, let

the lord’s eye land
elsewhere: thus
ran the prayers
of good catholic girls. good

catholic boys, too,
for when i leaned
of our lady of fatima, i fled
into sin. in school,

i swore. in church,
i daydreamed, doodled
superheroes
in the hymnals. in bed,

i imagined the bodies
of other
good catholic boys
& touched myself. yet still

i said my rosary. i awaited
the miracle. sometimes,
i tried to picture heaven, its
perpetual bells, its wide

fields of light. no
matter how hard
i called to them, no
visions ever came.

PATRICK KINDIG is the author of the forthcoming poetry collection fascinations (Finishing Line Press, 2025), the chapbook all the catholic gods (Seven Kitchens Press, 2019), and the micro-chapbook Dry Spell (Porkbelly Press, 2016) as well as the academic monograph Fascination: Trance, Enchantment, and American Modernity (Louisiana State University Press, 2022). His poems have appeared in the American Poetry Review, The Cincinnati Review, Colorado Review, Washington Square Review, Copper Nickel, and other journals. He currently lives and teaches in rural Texas.