. . . Because God
is not a flash of diamond light. God is
the kicked child, the child
who rocks alone in the basement
~ Ellen Bass “Bearing Witness”

after reading Roethke’s Waltz
the tension in my class was tangible:
to cast papa as a drunk (dealing abuse
with timed fists), or just a regular joe
dancing his darling to bed,
lightened by an after work beer

but as these immortals debated design
and argued image to metaphor
Katrine’s stillness split my heart;

later she explained her stepfather’s demand
of a demon’s dowry: how she nightly endured
his endless gropes and gasps, in a silence
which left her sister untouched, and a knife
untucked from his thrusting back.

~MEH

Editor’s Choice Award, Relief Journal, Winter 2007