“Gloss Stand” © Bonnie Matthews Brock

 

To Make a God

I’m sorry, but I’ve accidentally
turned your name into a holy word.

It now leaks from my lips
like a secret prayer, often involuntary.

Forget Aphrodite, it’s you I’ll blame
when I cannot weave,

so overcome with longing for a girl.

 
 
Satanic Panic

A moral panic has been sparked
after careful analysis
of the tracks along my heart.

Her name’s been found
whispering, wound backwards
through every song I try to play

The concerned parents, the Christians
are all gnashing their teeth,
frothing, demanding answers

as to why I can’t shake,
her name out of my skull.
I can only shrug, no apology.

Couldn’t even say sorry anyway,
without her name underneath my voice,
and behind the ache in my eyes.

 

Madeline Wierzal is poet and writer from Evanston, Illinois. As a board member of the Evanston Writers Workshop, she enjoys fostering community and craft among local writers via critique groups, workshops, and other events, while also performing, publishing, and blogging her own poetry.

Bonnie Matthews Brock is a Florida-based photographer, and retired school psychologist. She loves hiking the urban and woodland trails of “anywhere” (and pausing often to shoot photos) with her very patient husband (and often collaborator), Ted. Her images have been featured on the covers of magazines such as Ibbetson Street, Wild Roof Journal, Poesy Magazine, Humana Obscura, and Arkansas Review; as well as on the pages of publications such as Oddball Magazine, Ember Chasm Review, Beyond Words Literary Magazine, Beaver Magazine, and Lateral. Her works are archived at institutions such as Poets House NYC, Brown University, and Harvard University. You can view more of Bonnie’s images on Instagram @bonniematthewsbrock.