We are pleased to present “To Mary Magdalen, with thanks”. This poem won an Honorable Mention in the 2005 Utmost Christian Poetry Contest. It is reprinted with permission:
- To Mary Magdalen,
with thanks
by Vicki Goodfellow Duke
savior of pretty girls
slammed into doors
bloodied by steel-toed
boots,
tripping in heels
through the night
retching
memory
into drains
hiding
to scrub filth
from split lips,
certain still, their souls
are unbroken,
(these are the fortunate)
safe from pills
stashed in pockets
they’ve heard the truth—
love covers a multitude of sins
and there’s been plenty
of lovin’
no sense to kill yourself
when you may be redeemed
by tears,
letting down your hair
is easy,
the hardest thing,
to believe there’s deliverance
at the feet of a man
Copyright 2005 by Vicki Goodfellow Duke
See also:
“The Double Ds of Desire and Despair”, a Poem by Teresa Leo
“Facing the Wall”, a Poem by Janet Aalfs
1. Someone found a heart
on market street not human
there’s really no cause
for alarm though a naked heart
warm on the sidewalk on halloween
is upsetting but not as bad as if
it were the organ of a valuable life…
Prostitution: Factsheet on Human Rights Violations
As recently as 1991, police in a southern California
community closed all rape reports made by prostitutes and addicts,
placing them in a file stamped “NHI.” The letters stand for the words
“No Human Involved.” (Linda Fairstein, Sexual Violence: Our War Against
Rape, 1993, New York, William Morrow.)