May 11, 2007

Heresy

I’m an Italian woman and my poems say Mangia!
I want to feed you bread & wine, fruit & feast,
blessed and broken words to chew, chew, chew.

I want you to eat them purely for pleasure,
to put your lips around p,
crack k’s with your crowns,

roll l’s across your tongue,
to swallow sweet & easy
the meal of your life.

For it is what your body craves,
your heart sorely wants,
what your gut loves.

It is lies & truth, death & life,
sweet/sour, adazzle/dim,
what you have always and never known.

It is itself and you besides,
every thing & no thing at all.
It stuffs you full

and leaves you
heavy, hungry,
starved for more.

It makes you glad.
It troubles your sleep.
It is my body & my blood.

Here.
Take.
Eat.

—Angela Alaimo O’Donnell

Posted by dwaber at May 11, 2007 12:15 PM