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