My Sister Agnes Dons Her Veil and Marries God
My Sister Agnes Dons Her Veil and Marries God
Madeleine Atkinson
My sister Agnes dons her veil and marries God
when service is over she takes off her whites
like a yolk shedding its shell, smells the daisies
and the sweetgrass in the garden, down the street
whispers a prayer up into His big sky
rolls down a hill clockwise, all the world a marital bed
and she smiles, for there is joy, grin cracking open
in a glass bowl, like burst flour in His kitchen
split to a fresh new pair of eyes.
outside, a tulip taking its first breath,
a crocus taking its first sigh.
Madeleine Atkinson
Poet
Madeleine is British poet performing her work in the North of England. She is the 2020 winner of the Do Wha(TS) Write short story competition, and has performed poetry in collaboration with Durham Castle Arts Week. This is her first publication.
Photography by Eugene Golovesov