On Having A Religious Experience In The Delafield WalMart

If I'd been truly observant of these things
these signs which presage and portend such events
I'd have known by the smiles and giddy laughter
of the two habited nuns at the checkout stand

I'd have known that what went down before
why the very diagnosis itself
the sepia high stratus-cirrus cloudforms
veiling and unveiling the eye of a harvest moon
which gave me reason to seek out the
four dollar bottle at the Pharmacy
Such value cannot really be calculated

Waiting for my cure ambling the aisles
And I thought of all those fathers in time
offering small gestures to their children
tokens of love: now a pink camo onesie
now a pair of sandals beset with sequines

What tears rolled down my face
as I understood all of a sudden
the holiness of the place
in the chaff coat a kernel of wheat
and the sign and signature
of Fathers and Daughters everywhere
for you, my love, what I have
to offer, precious one