July 16: Feast of the Virgin Carmen

Source: nydailynews.com

Every cabbie in Colombia is crazy

for Carmen, the Virgin riding shot-gun,

who loves any man with wheels.

Over her they all lock horns

BEEP! BEEP! BEEP!

in a traffic-jammed devotion

inching past the drive-thru window

for her second-hand kiss

dished out by a priest with holy water.

All the POW! POW! POW!

above the red block houses makes it feel

like Syria under extremist siege,

except here today no one's dying;

Carmen loves too much for that.

She's so sweet that the streets

would lose their thing for killing

if only every driver hung

her picture from the rear-view mirror.

Then they'd see her looking back

and remember they're being followed

by a tenderness they can't outrun.

Greg Kennedy, SJ works as a spiritual director at the Ignatius Jesuit Centre in Guelph, Ontario. He is author of Reupholstered Psalms volumes I, II, and III; and Amazing Friendships between Animals and Saints (Novalis Press).

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