CONFESSION by Lucille Clifton.

father
i am not equal to the faith required.
i doubt.
i have a woman’s certainties;
bodies pulled from me,
pushed into me,
bone flesh is what I know.

father
the angels say they have no wings.
i woke one morning
feeling how to see them.
i could discern their shadows
in the shadow. i am not
equal to the faith required.

father
i see your mother standing now
shoulderless and shoeless by your side.
i hear her whisper truths I cannot know.
father I doubt.

father
what are the actual certainties?
your mother speaks of love.
the angels say they have no wings.
i am not equal to the faith required.
i try to run from such surprising presence;
the angels stream before me
like a torch.
in polluted air
our ancestors continue.
i have seen them.
i have heard
their shimmering voices
singing…….

Reference:
Lucille Clifton