Loading...
Loading...
Click here if you don’t see subscription options
Gerald McCarthyMarch 13, 2025

I quarter the fruit downstairs
in the cellar deep-well sink
squeezing each seed out,
tiny red arils floating in the bowl
of cold water—the color of dark sunsets.
The juice stains my fingers, like guilt,
like blood and pain and grief.
And suddenly, without warning
this long year of suffering
comes back in fragments,
the nightmare silence of children lost,
their cries muffled by smoke and fire—
dull shudders of the earth
heave up from bombs, from those
who should have known better—
men who will carry these lives
forever—the stupid cruelty
hate breeds, giving birth to ignorance,
anger, and last of all, regret.
Too late—the owl calls,
this cold December night—
too late. Now another winter
while we wait, listening to the wind,
to the song sorrow brings—wailing
against the nature of man,
against insolence and greed
hatred there is no cure for,
the tiny arils swirl in the water.

The latest from america

Pope Leo XIV urged new archbishops to help him foster unity in a church rich in diversity. Eight of those new archbishops are from the United States, and they spoke to Catholic News Service about how they can help promote fraternity in today’s polarized world.
This week on “Jesuitical,” Zac and Ashley chat with Christopher White about his new book, ‘Pope Leo XVI: Inside the Conclave and the Dawn of a New Papacy.’
JesuiticalJune 30, 2025
Kerry Weber, incoming president of the Catholic Media Association, and executive editor of America Magazine, speaks June 26, 2025, during the Catholic Media Conference in Phoenix. (OSV News photo/Bob Roller)
Kerry Weber is an executive editor for America. On May 20, 2025, the Catholic Media Association announced that she was elected president,
Grace LenahanJune 30, 2025
"The whole church needs fraternity, which must be present in all of our relationships, whether between lay people and priests, priests and bishops, bishops and the pope," he said during his homily at Mass on the feast of Sts. Peter and Paul June 29.