Poetry

Femme Fatalities: 14. r 6

“My son, the Flesh & Blood King.”

Why me
(at Communion)
am I
the only one
who combines
the Host & Wine in One

within my cup:

there
nestled in my palm
the limpid pool shimmers
in rhythm
to my heartbeat while
the Host (as of old)
absorbs the winedark blood

so that saturated, it sinks beneath the Cleansing Flood

and I am me no more;

I sup and He and I Are— One again

the way it used to be.

Carl A. Winderl is professor of English at Eastern Nazarene College.

Copyright © 1999 by the author or Christianity Today/Books & Culture Magazine. Click here for reprint information on Books & Culture.

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Books & Culture was a bimonthly review that engaged the contemporary world from a Christian perspective. Every issue of Books & Culture contained in-depth reviews of books that merit critical attention, as well as shorter notices of significant new titles. It was published six times a year by Christianity Today from 1995 to 2016.

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