The Innisfree Poetry Journal

www.innisfreepoetry.org

by Doritt Carroll

Katie at 15

her loveliness seems early

and unexpected

like a telephone call

that wakes

from deepest sleep

her legs and waist

know things

they haven’t

told the rest of her

but

she can guess

magnificat

i like to think about how

terrified Mary must have been

and how suspicious and mean

Joseph must have treated her 

and how Jesus must have said “fuck you,

you aren’t my father” when he turned 13

and stormed off to sulk in the temple

and then Joseph went and had a vengeance

fling and made all those debatable half-siblings

and Mary was grateful for the peace and quiet

but after a long slow bath she did go looking

at least for Jesus

because no matter what

incomprehensible gibberish

that angel guy had babbled

that boy

had lived inside her

curled right where the peak

of her rib cage came together like

the roof of a stable

that boy

had cradled himself

as if the bone points of her pelvis

were a manger

that boy

no matter what the snickering money changers

or the o so superior dove merchants whispered

that boy

was her

son