I Am Martin: Part Two

I Am Martin: Part Two

 

Martin walked into the confessional of the Catholic church.

This place was the congregation he’d been cast out of.

He remembered

the night he walked out of the church with his few true possessions in hand,

how he meandered his way to a pay phone to call his brother,

the man who is currently his roommate.

Martin thought of his brother,

how he’d be sitting in his French chair while reading one of the books that he never finishes.

Martin returned himself to the scenario before him.

He sighed as he sat in the confessional.

The Priest on the other side of Martin spoke first:

“Your confession better be worth my time.”

“Why, Father?” Martin replied.

“Because the last person I had in confession

was a Jewish man who talked to me about his digestion problems.”

 

Martin tried not to laugh.

 

“But what must you confess, my Brother?” the Priest said.

Martin drew in a deep breath and collected the bits of himself his troubles had broken away.

 

“I think I might want to become a womanizer,” Martin said regretfully.

 

The Priest replied, “Well, then go for them b*****s.”

Martin dropped his jaw in shock.

“But,” he stammered,

 

“doesn’t objectifying women insult the beauty

and dignity which our God has bestowed upon and within them?”

 

“Well, if you put it that way…” the Priest replied.

A frenetic pause resided between the two of them for a short while until Martin said,

 

“And?”

 

The Priest snapped out of his own trance and said,

“Uh…next confession.”

Martin shifted his seat while drawing in a breath.

He said,

“At this point, I think I’m a lapsed Catholic.”

The Priest took a moment to respond.

 

“Well,” he said, “I’m a priest and I’m a lapsed atheist.”

 

Martin furrowed his brow.

“A lapsed atheist?” he pressed.

“Yes. I’m not entirely sure what I’m talking about,

but my brother is a lapsed agnostic,

so now he doesn’t know that he doesn’t know

about something he could never have known in the first place.”

The two paused for a moment. Martin then said,

“You’re an idiot.”

 

“Please continue the descent into the vapid chasms of your suffering,” the Priest said.

 

Martin sighed once more and continued.

 

“I’m a parrot in a cage, saying prayers to be alive.

The rest of my hopes and dreams and life are burning away like a stick of incense.

I wish my fall was as elegant as Midnight Mass,

but it isn’t.

I’m not as immortal as the flames that burn upon the candles

and the warmth that blazes in the hearts of the congregation.”

 

He paused.

 

“I am not legend.

I am a covenant broken in the eyes of God,

a lamb far too lost from the safety of the flock.

I…”

 

he started to sob,

 

“I’ve been in my Temple while the besieging

fires of Doubt dance

around the city outside my bell towers.

This…this is how Men of Christ fall…”

 

A silence ensued between the two.

The Priest let out a sigh and said,

 

“Hmm…interesting…so, do you want to buy me a doughnut?”

 

Martin replied,

“I know more about faith than you;

you, who claims to know the mind of God:

me, a lesser man who was cast out of the Priesthood…

why am I so concerned with the burden of honesty and care toward my fellow people?"

He paused: "Well?"

Reviews

[Little Birdie]

"Well then go for them b*****s." made me laugh so hard! Great, great work.

[Coyote Poetry]

I enjoyed this story. When two people can talk and both can feel better and stronger. Thank you sharing the outstanding story.
Coyote

[Rene Velez]

nice work