The Chosen Ones

Published in The Common

When he was 12, he was voted
Most likely to become Satan's spawn

By the other sixth graders at Gesù
Catholic School in Northy. Lucas

Wasn't especially impious,
Just voluble, free with his opinions,

And meekly unobservant. So why?
Why did his peers believe that Lucas

Was destined for the pits of hell?
Was it his hornlets? The two nubbins

Growing from the top of his skull?
Was it his attire?—a spiked collar,

Leather pants and his mother's hand-
Me-down Black Sabbath tee shirts?

Or was it his random acts of pyro-
Kinesis and levitation?

When the election results were
Announced at the June graduation

His father burst and fell, hard tears
And bruised knees. He prayed for release.

So Lucas brushed off his Papa's
Porkpie hat, and let his hare run free.