TRANSUBSTANTIATION

Philip Byrne

I envy the steadfast belief of ants
hauling their dead like loggers
dragging a felled tree.

There is no funeral procession
in their need to bring to the hive
the fallen, for what reward such loyalty?

Stripped down to scrap, cannibalistic
sustenance, ritual glorification—
Eat this body and drink this blood

And you shall live on.


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