All evening your fingers traced the length of my arm
with such delicate grace the hair there
seemed laced in arcs of blue flame.

Later, as the sky cracked with the fury
of cannon, I woke while lightening
lit the shadowy world.

You had told me you were Catholic
“lapsed at 22″ you had said, but when
the thunder cracked again,

I cringed, murmured,
my God, all we did was talk
though looking out the window

I remembered other thoughts as I watched
the tongue of your Catholic God
licking the distant sky.

Michael S. Glaser is a Professor Emeritus at St. Mary’s College of Maryland, where he received the Dodge Endowed Award for Excellence in Teaching. He is also a recipient of the Columbia Merit Award for his service to poetry. Widely sought as a speaker and workshop leader, Glaser has served as a Maryland State Arts Council poet-in-the-schools for over 20 years and is active the Maryland Humanities Council’s Speakers Bureau. He served as Poet Laureate of Maryland from August, 2004 through August 2009. You can find out more about him at http://faculty.smcm.edu/msglaser/.