Apparition

Sitting in a pew at
    Chiesa di Santa Maria Maggiore of Trieste
I was approached by a man
    haggard-looking,
    thin,
    in tattered clothes,
    and with a three-day old growth of beard.

My first reaction was to recoil
    in dread:
“Can’t these damned migrants, addicts, or paupers
    stop bothering me… in Church?”

But, then I realized that beneath the modern, Western accoutrements,
    the man wore the habit
    of a Franciscan priest-monk.
He spoke to me of God’s love
    and forgiveness;
I nodded my head,
    as I have heard it all before.

Only seconds after he left my side
    did I realize this monk was wearing
    coarse, fingerless gloves,
and I was struck by the thought
    that I just spoke to
    San Francesco d'Assisi,
    whose gloves covered his
    stigmata.

I quickly turned around,
but the man apparently vanished,
into thin air,
leaving in his wake
    only an unmistakable scent of
    frankincense,
    sandalwood,
    and myrrh.

Clearly, fool that I am,
I missed my chance
of profoundly conversing
with a Sun-Man,
one of the
Lords of Life.