the priests
take the kids into 
their darkness

basements
bathrooms
rectories
residential schools

all the houses
of affirmation
of their darkness

the kids come out
or do not 
shine again or dim
and go out

but the darkness 
around the priests
remains as thick

as the last hours
on Golgotha
as in the tomb
behind the Scriptural stone

they love to talk
about how it was
rolled away

they never admit
to rolling it back
to hold in
the useful darkness

saying
waste not 
want not