I Defeated Satan

I defeated Satan by leaving those

Last two cookies in the cookie jar; how

I’ll ever know for sure, well, I’ll just wait.

I defeated the flesh by pulling up

Two dark church socks with spotted patterns and 

Overstretched elastic bands; they don’t stay up.

I defeated the world by smiling at 

The fool that rode his motorcycle through

The stop sign looking back at me, gloating,

Rocking the cool sign and then slamming 

Into the back of a parked car while I

Tried my best to suppress a laugh which

I couldn’t. No wait that second part didn’t

Really happen, I just wished that it did.

I defeated Satan by leaving those

Last two cookies in the cookie jar; how

I’ll ever know for sure, well, I’ll just wait.

-Gary Edward Geraci

Frames

Love is but times that muscling smack

Fierce passions back,

Intrepid stands,

To lock one’s hands

In prayer and supplication; bust;

Break legions; thrust

Down faithless foes;

Those lies Lord knows.

Lean partialities, agape

Like cloak and cape.

True agape

Shared; One; the Way.

• Gary Edward Geraci

“Marfa, Marfa you are worried and upset about many things”

The woman and the man who beaded sweat

As they threaded the needle that clasped

My fine garmet together. Don’t you love

It’s striped silk inlay that no one else but

I will ever see? Like fine, intricate

Chiseled stone art high above street level

Leveled; hugging the chimney top adorning

Their building; work that only God will see.

-Gary Edward Geraci 

A Flash In the Pan

A corpulent man in a Porsche with a thinner, younger woman standing outside the rear passenger door; waiting while he vacuums its interior.

The church secretary receives a shipment of red wine and round wheat hosts with just her signature - chasing off skateboarders riding the rails past the Virgin Mary. 

An adolescent teen discovers that he can indeed tame the wild, cruel streak imposing itself at the most inconvenient of times.

Cold water from a Yeti drink canister tastes good while “Big Band Swing Sunday” plays in the background...

A giant white Great Egret lands on a log in the muddy river water and patiently waits for a minnow; a flash in the pan.

• Gary Edward Geraci

Prove Saint Srinivasa Ramanujan

“The world needs saints, and all of us, without exception, are called to holiness. We are not afraid!” Pope Francis, October 14, 2018

I

Dear mathematician; a canzone:

A man of India, a child of God.

Born in the south but of gifts, there’s just one.

To sift through numbers - isolated one -

Wrote handwritten books; no proofs - but beauty!

Sure of the work because of its source, one

Man’s journey to publish, to share - this one

Dream drew the intercession of the saints.

Prayers to his gods like prayers to the saints,

Carried a letter to England - only one.

This postal union with Ramanujan:

Professor Hardy and Ramanujan.

II

His mother loved him much; Ramanujan

Was her only son.  She picked his wife, one

Young woman, half is age.  Ramanujan

Loved her but loved math more.  Ramanujan,

Slate and chalk in hand, knew the will of God:

To find and write new math. Ramanujan,

A man with a new wife! Ramanujan,

Would soon have to choose between one beauty

Or another; one country; or beauty

Lying beyond all bounds.  Ramanujan

Prayed without ceasing.  I believe the saints

Heard him; interceding, the work of saints.

III

Yes, messengers these angels and these saints,

Divine will, their concern; Ramanujan 

Their charge.  With no formal training, the saints

Got him to Cambridge.  Through sickness, the saints

Sustained him; a racism victim - one

More trial.  His peers believed not in the saints

Or gods, or in math without proofs.  These saints

Saw to it; hearing his prayers; kin to God,

Bearing bravely; blighty men with no God,

Sending sparks of grace; these works of the saints

Opened eyes and ears!  The realm of beauty;

Novel results soon proven; what beauty!

IV

Nothing else except math; blinding beauty!

First he proved: who needs proofs? Work of the saints!

Then, a concession to rigor, beauty

In bounds and discipline; now more beauty!

Prized scholars respecting Ramanujan,

Genius and status - this man of beauty.

Elected as Fellow; savant of beauty!

A man of India, now the first one

To receive such honors and to be called one

Of the greats.  His rise, a tale of beauty,

A story of struggle; the guidance God

Gives through trial and error. All proofs point to God!

V

Young man, age thirty two, taken by God;

Has taught mankind that order is beauty.

God’s not one of many - this can’t be God;

This one has; another has not; not God.

God is ALL teaches His Son.  For the saints

Inspired by the Holy Ghost; God IS God.

If god is short something this is not God.

While every formula Ramanujan

Wrote could not be proven, Ramanujan 

Was a man of prayer and a man of God.

Subject to reason and proof, love for the One

Trinity; now face to face - All Three: ONE.

Envoi

I believe your soul to be in Heaven, one

With the Lord and His Heavenly Hosts.  God

Chose you to expand math; make proofs - beauty!

If I could ask to validate one saint:

Prove Saint Srinivasa Ramanujan!

-Gary Edward Geraci