apotheosis

by Peter Magliocco

"that's what comes from the shiver
of spines aggravated by injury,"
he confided, showing me the autopsy photos.
she had been somebody's lover in another age
(before battered women became poster-familiar)

& communal model to us both years back,
before whatever turned her inside-out happened
with the dark fury of electrical storms.
neither of us had done what the photos
in grim negative contrasts revealed
(though wanting to, at times):
a higher god waited in shadows, we decided,

one who'd overlook our penchant
for admiring artistic coloration
in our late lady friend's wounds.

she who had hated religion became
in her own right a sanguinary martyr
some loving organization would adopt,
extolling her revered face on milk cartons.



*Peter Magliocco has a new novel out, The Burgher of Virtual Eden from Publish America (http://www.publishamerica.com/). He was Pushcart nominated for poetry in 2008.