Adam Tavel: Sister Roberta’s Lecture Notes on the Shroud of Turin
Show symmetry of splotching fanned
on wings of Monsignor’s
Brown Elfin, callophrys augustinus, “a common
West Coast species,” its shades of sepia
& rust. Between homilies a half-century
netting butterflies—NO FINGERPRINTS
on his case. Compare then to the Holy
Linen, roots of vein preserved & the husk
our Savior shucked as testament—
His venter speared & the fever-hour’s
vinegar sponge, a centurion’s lark.
On the matter of carbon
dating avoid rigorous
debate—Vatican conducted a battery
of experiments. The Holy Father is a man
of Galileo. Recount accident of papa’s
hound Luke who tongued our boots,
whose ribs peppered with quail shot stained
our guest linen. Final
slide: between radius & ulna a womb
for nails. In case it should arise
there are twenty seven bones in the wrist.
ADAM TAVEL won the 2010 Robert Frost Award, and he was a finalist for Four Way Books’ 2010 Intro Prize in Poetry as well as the 2011 Patricia Goedicke Prize in Poetry. His latest poems appear or are forthcoming in Indiana Review, Phoebe, Redivider, New South, Cave Wall, Ellipsis, and Folio, among others. Tavel co-founded the journal Conte and is a contributing editor at Emprise Review. He lives and teaches on Maryland’s Eastern Shore.
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