—-—She now wanders at large to the notorious peril to her soul.
In the likeness of her body she created the dummy.
In the image of God, male & female He created them.
She placed her heart in its small cavity.
In sickness she heard Him call to her—— in a dream her sweat,
the bed, she said I am here. Here, she said, pretending to be dead in her body.
She created the dummy, no longer thinking
or seeing——no longer hearing,—— his body on hers in that
determined way—the way of carnal lust, he said.
She placed her heart in its small cavity.
She buried herself in that sacred place with the deceased—
herself, or only the image of herself——His likeness, her body
the dummy.——She cast aside
the modesty of her sex, he said—— the propriety
of religion:——cunning, nefarious the manner, the likeness
of her body she created—& she placed her heart
in the dummy. She placed herself in its small cavity.
Marci Rae Johnson’s poems appear or are forthcoming in Moon City Review, The MacGuffin, Rhino, and 32 Poems, among others. Her most recent book is Basic Disaster Supplies Kit (Steel Toe).
