“Anything is Possible for He Who Believeth”
quote on the Presbyterian Church marquis, 1956

Sitting in the church between my grandparents,
fireworks of spit like sparks spewed from the mouth
of the pastor, a baptismal blaze I wanted to capture.

At home I flew from the top of the long back stairs
like an angel in training—ballerinas practiced faith,
didn’t they? I thought bruises proved a childhood.

Nights when the sire creeped in from the window
for his game of musical beds, a gauze wrapped me
in the ceiling. Eyes recorded the impossible view.

Does memory play tricks like liars? We moved
when I turned nine to a split-level, nowhere to fly.
Trailed boys into a crawl space of odd behaviors.

Maybe I overestimated courage or underestimated
darkness, the house engulfed in smoke, but dreaming,
a she-bird charges forward. Can you hear the flap of wings?

 

Winner of the Henry Morganthau III Award 2026 from Passager books for Proof of Life, O’Fallon’s poems also appear in literary journals, magazines, and anthologies such as RATTLE, Tupelo Press, MER, and four chapbooks. She has received awards for individual poems and been nominated for Best of the Net 2026.