Gifts from God

Hillside, Illinois –Joseph Reinholtz, after making

a pilgrimage to Medjugorje, was divinely directed
to Queen of Heaven Cemetery, where he was healed
from blindness before a cross that some say bleeds,
changes color, and turns rosaries to gold.

                                                --from a news story (July 24, 1991)

They are discovered on tortillas

or in bowls of Corn Flakes,
on cankered walls in distant villages,
or in bowling alleys and on strands of pasta
printed on Pizza Hut billboards –
these messages of fasting, faith and peace,
gifts from God to the devotees
of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese.

But this is the place of miracles now:

Hillside, Illinois, at the Queen of Heaven
Cemetery, where people drop by
before tennis and brunch at the Oakbrook Mall
to watch their rosaries turn to 14k gold
with just a Midas prayer
before a bleeding, chameleonic cross
far from the villages
where sins are forgiven just for devotion,
and a diet of cures and conversions
is served for the faithful each day
before a weeping Virgin icon.

Ask Joseph Reinholtz.

He saw it with his own eyes.


“Gifts from God” was originally published in American Goat, 1992.

for two other similar thematic poems:
“Dia de los Muertos” & “Double Vision”