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Syntax Issue 10
Denver Syntax
{a night film in notre dame}
  marianna staroselsky


Notre Dame in the dark:
A bright film plays at the altar.
Piety, and children who believe
In God and adults who teach
Them God application.

Tourists ring through pews
Like smelly rats with cameras
Sniffing the Virgin Marys
Brushing their paws
Over the dame’s immaculate
Dark body.

One stained glass window is lit
And the sky is factory blue and geometric
Above Parisian baby Jesus,
And the wise men who grope
Through his palace.