MiPo Poetry Board Best of 2002

Rock and Roll
is the Devil’s Music

If there’s a bustle in your hedgerow,
don’t be alarmed now—
it’s just a spring clean for the May Queen.

                                   —Led Zeppelin

I thought
if I was good, she wouldn’t see,

if I could squat like an Indian
and press my bowed head
tight to the psalter,
the panes would stop
flapping during prayer—

Amen, they’d just be windows
resuming their stains.

I thought
if I was small, she wouldn’t know,

wouldn’t guess
a tomahawk in such small hands
or when the plates
went around, I counted scalps—
pew after pew, notches
of red and white, red and white bone—

Oh Lord,
shuddering, what I’ve done…

I thought
when I grew up, I wouldn’t hide
anymore but cover my shadow. I’d be tall,
be good. No sinner—she’d see.

Invitation

The church is a stone’s throw.
None attends the well
but one endures
stumbles and waits like a stoic widow.

I slow to remember her, the nave
where she accepts all comers,
dissolves tongues,
wafers in the chancel of her throat.

Bruised swords hang
from nails outside the vestibule.
I stop.
           She opens and closes
and draws me—slowly, utterly
in with her slim wrists and fingers.

IBPC
Poems that represented MiPo in
The InterBoard Poetry Competition
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Poems written for poetry challenges from the various forums.
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