FREE VERSE Poem: Mary/Jane, by Audrey Baeten-Ruffo

He planted flowers in her lungs
now she couldn’t breathe
for fear of their stems snapping in the wind
Holy hypoxia

The crown of thorns sat comfortably upon her
The flesh of her scalp was the perfect sheath for its barbs

In her liver grew fields of wheat and persimmon trees
His cattle grazed on the grassy plains of her face
The children grew in her heart[land]
And grapevines twined like tendrils of smoke around her ribs
Safe from what would happen later

soon her bones will be hollow
At least there might be an public housing project
For his disciples
In the encystment

her veins were swollen beneath
the water they now send alongside blood
To keep his plants, and children, alive

the question is
was mothering in – his
nature