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Volume 17

Featured Artist: Meredith Trede

Excerpt from "Lessons from Uncle Ned"

A stand-in for my Protestant father,
as my father-in-God he was bound
to make sure my soul would rise
Roman Catholic on Judgment Day.
He told me I was beautiful, gave dolls,
rosaries, a tiny diamond birth-stone ring.
His jaw was big. I thought he was handsome.

He married, moved to New Jersey,
became a boss with his own office,
said he’d always love me. He’d write
from meetings out of town or late
nights at home when parish work was done:
You can do anything because you’re you.
Prayer is the sure way to know your vocation.

Through college he warned: Free thought leads
to heresy. I married a Catholic
in a Lutheran service. Uncle Ned wouldn’t attend.

updated: April 19, 2007, DEC