from The Seven Heavenly Virtues

Magdalena Alagna   

Faith

I dream each night of a gray prison. A blonde drag queen is the warden.
She swigs a bottle of whiskey, practices cabaret numbers.
Hell bent I ran for the razor wire in my gray scrubs.
If I do get out, I miss the bus.
If I don't make it, the searchlights spin
And I join the prisoner chorus,
A smile tacked above a gray waste.
The ligatures of sin stitch me together like a dialect.
Faith is the accumulation of fiery exigencies,
The blood cry of morning, a warning that blood might overcome.
Is there a curse in my veins, or have I gained an emptiness?
Chronos is the god beyond belief,
Father of agriculture who ate his children.
Down with babies-Let the zucchini flourish!
Eventually the Sun will become
A giant that eats Earth whole.
This will hasten my birth as a star.

c. 2002