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13thWR
AND SO GOD CHOSE COUNTY CORK
Madonnas began to levitate,
floating on the helium breath
of God, arms bent as if cradling
pigeons or a small burden of boys.
Virgins stirred restlessly
all over County Cork,
moving as if trying to break
their status, trailing after
people like shadows, ghostly
grey of a gentle exhaust.
People came with lawn chairs
and prayers. Some wept. Others
drew the blinds and waited for
the apocalypse, praying that the eyes
of the silent mothers would return to
half-mast like the flags in Belfast.
Boys knelt in alleyways
and saw worlds between their
hands. Girls wove flowers
into their hair after mass. Yet
stone was stone, was still stone.
Violets sprouted on the famine roads.
- Joelle L. Renstrom
