Byrd Mass for Four Voices by Patrick Donnelly

on the radio, and Christ it’s the 80s again,
and after a whole night at the baths I’m a baritone
in the back row of a choir ten blocks west.
A professional, fresh from the conservatory.

Bathhouse and parish both named for saints:
I paid to enter the house of Mark, who ran away
naked when Jesus was arrested, and where
I wrestled all night, though not with angels.

Then, 9 A.M. in the house of Joseph, God’s cuckold,
I was paid in turn—the church paid me—
to be another man, of the 1580s, who opened
his practiced mouth with a clear, untroubled tone.

Two wrestling saints, lowest of the four voices—
once I thought I saw them kiss each other’s faces.

Patrick Donnelly is the author of four books of poetry, most recently Little-Known Operas (Four Way Books, 2019). Donnelly is director of the Poetry Seminar at The Frost Place, Robert Frost’s old homestead in Franconia, NH, now a center for poetry and the arts. www.patrickdonnellypoetry.com