savage

From “Giornata”

8.
My father Bacchus wanted a daughter instead of me.
He felt the threat a son implies, and took you, my infant
virility, scarf-skin like a halo, angel of my innocence
fore-fledged. Before the ritual, there was guilt. You were
vestigial as the divot where the angel pinched my lips
in binding silence. Would I see myself in style or fit

Gregory Pardlo

2022

The Script

I.
You thought this would be 
a dance lesson,
things were easier then.
No marimbas, no clarinets;
only a longing for the fun
to begin.
Rain came down.
Nothing seems as remote
as the days you didn't 
have to think about it:
always already there,
gushing out. Control
was required to stop ideas 
from overflowing. 
You did your job well, 
you killed them as one kills Easter 
baby chickens. 

II.
Rasputin was on the lookout.
Magdalene had multipurpose hair:
Kumernis had it in stocks 
where and when she needed it,
on her beard especially. Anything 
to keep the Barbarians away
will do.

Mónica de la Torre

2002

Magdalene: The Woman Taken in Adultery

Teacher, they said to Jesus, The law of Moses says to stone her. What do you say? —John 8:5

You know how it is when your speeding car spins on the ice at night

and you think here it is?

When the deer spring across the headlights?

When you begin to slip down the steep and icy steps?

Now imagine someone is about to push you, someone you know

and then they don’t.

Marie Howe

2017

Poems

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savage

From “Giornata”

The Script

Magdalene: The Woman Taken in Adultery

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