A RUSSIAN MASS IN AMERICA

Leaning over the rails
at the communion watch
from alpha to omega
a student forgetting electrodes
of the medical department
next to us
with a Harvard accent
telling of miracles
on Assumption Day
that a woman of ninety
returned here from her coffin.
Only excommunicated words
rise from the choir
those warm high voices
rejoice at Lent
after the snow of Archangel
with crossword puzzled faces
reading "Crime and Punishment"
in Russian tea rooms
no one here
has forgotten
Stalin has six letters.