Jeffrey Thomson, author of the forthcoming Museum of Objects Burned by the Souls in Purgatory, is a memoirist, translator, and editor. He lives in Maine.
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Infinite Jest
04-29-2021
A poem.
Illustration by Mikita Rasolka
Lorenzo was mortar for the church
he built, gathering wild birds
for the rafters and fruited trees
for their food. He carted stone
and hoisted, he pestled, he block-
and-tackled. Persecuted
by Valerian and about to be
arrested, Lorenzo goat-herded
the church’s wealth, distributed it
to the poor. He paid the unmade
orphans, clothed the lepers
in money. He sold the sacred
vessels, the varied trestles.