The Innisfree Poetry Journal

www.innisfreepoetry.org

by Maureen Donatelli

Bricks

I was one made to stand on street corners.
I was one made to hold in small hands a currency I could not understand.

I was one made to deny unclean things.
I was one made to never falter in belief.

I was one made to love our God.
I was made to obey mother and Daddy.

I was one made to keep my head covered in the presence of men and the Lord.
I was one made to memorize cracks in sidewalks.

I was one made to hand the wicked the hope of eternal salvation.
I was one made to have God’s Holy Word thrown back in my face.

I was one made to suffer the spit of angry old women.
I was one made to cover my ears against their curses.

I was one made ever watchful for the Devil.
I was one made to witness the eternal presence of God.

I was one made of sin.
I was one made for the righteousness of persecution.

I was one made to deny worldly things.
I was one made to fear the realm of demons in the dark under my bed.

I was one made never to speak of my body.
I was one made vigilant in covering my body’s powerful seduction.

I was one made of weakness.
I was one made to touch that filthy place.

I was one made to writhe through star-filled summer nights.
I was one made to pray for a stern, long suffering husband.

I was one made to glory in all womanly pain.
I was one made in Eve's likeness.

I was one made to lie with a man at the age of twelve.
I was one made to secretly rejoice over the sweet miracle of his body in mine.

I was one made to seek out their bodies.
I was one made with a deep pit of emptiness.

I was one made to stand on street corners.
I was one made to wait for the currency I had grown to understand.

I was one made to cling to unclean things.
I was one made to crave the burn of sweet liquid salvation.

I am one made from Armageddon.
I am one made to whisper these small hard secrets.