Pope takes a nap

the mass was long-winded and the Cardinals

were fidgeting under their blood-red cassocks

and as the choir hymned an unexpectedly jazzy account

of Giovanni Battista Pergolesi’s “Stabat Mater”

which awakened the sleepy-eyed Pope who instinctively

began blessing all who gathered there including the choir

and their crazy rendition of Pergolesi’s “Stabat Mater” as well.

now, truth-be-told I wasn’t there.

but Marco Marcucci heard it from Joey Fonseca

who said he was there and Marco told uncle Octavio Pieroni

who told Francis, his wife, who told Annie, my mother

who told William, my father, who then told Romeo DiConcinni,

who told his wife, my cousin Edith, eldest daughter to Uncle Frank Toni,

famed cobbler to the residents of the north-end of town, and sans the begats,

this is the process with which the book of Genesis was written.