Conversion is a poem that was published in the Spring 1997 edition of The Flintlock.

The Flintlock Spring 1997

Conversion

She was Catholic
until she married
my father
And though she betrays
no confidence to me
I sense that she misses
confession

The first time I took
the Lord’s Name in vain,
(it was 1979)she scolded me
and sent me to my room.
Crying into the corner
of my trundle-bed
I realized she loved
someone more than me

Our soap opera
picnics were never the same

perhaps because I
resented not being
her only confidant
knowing He knew all
those “certain things
better left unsaid”

I think she wants me to believe
she is as flawless as her God
I want her to be more
like me