Mary
By Rhonda Rosenheck | April 14, 2026
(a pantoum)
Mary dug through her sundae, unearthing sweet bits,
blind to oblique police-woman glances. Indifferent—
archeological zeal? Blood, where her right hand raked
her captor’s corpse.
Blind to oblique police-woman glances. Indifferent
to fluid crusting red to brown to black, from
her captor’s corpse,
drying, as she slaked her thirst and ate her first meal.
Fluid, crusting red to brown to black, from
a farewell brush across his head,
drying, as she slaked her thirst and ate her first meal
with the absorption of a crypt-robber.
A farewell brush across his head—
Archeological zeal? Blood where her right hand raked
with the absorption of a crypt-robber.
Mary dug through her sundae, unearthing sweet bits.