We kneel in Catholic Pews
at Immaculate Conception on
East 14th street,
Between Avenue A and First Avenue
Praying to a wooden Jesus
On the cross…….
Our clip-on ties,
Plaid tails, hanging from our necks,
Our penny loafers, pennies shining, on…….
Deep Tagalog-accented priest
blessing us with his Bible-words,
trying to save us from our sinful acts…..
Psalms and Parables
we will ignore when school is done
and we are riding our boards
into the Alphabet City streets…….
Picking fights with other
boys in need of being
saved from all their
Lower East Side
Sins.
