Thomas Kretz
Mutter Mae
Underneath an abject yellow silk
Skin sulking in unrepentant salt
Suffering a long stretch of smeared milk
And ashamed of being wrapped in fault,
esoteric scan.
Daughter died in the wet arms of Church,
Buried where Mae could not set her foot;
She scourged to the bone with cleansing birch,
But still condemned to burn into soot,
superstitious rhyme.
Not baldachins or bless of a pope,
Thick airs and snares of friars in white
Could prevent brash, brilliant sparks of hope
Dappling upon the Goddess-strewn light,
divine rhythm.
Thomas Kretz, recently returned to the USA after 25 years working in Italy, has published in many UK magazines including Outposts, Envoi, Staple, New Welsh Review, New Blackfriars, and The Month. He is currently managing a rest home for aging and infirm Jesuits in Pennsylvania.
Page(s) 79
magazine list
- Features
- zines
- 10th Muse
- 14
- Acumen
- Agenda
- Ambit
- Angel Exhaust
- ARTEMISpoetry
- Atlas
- Blithe Spirit
- Borderlines
- Brando's hat
- Brittle Star
- Candelabrum
- Cannon's Mouth, The
- Chroma
- Coffee House, The
- Dream Catcher
- Equinox
- Erbacce
- Fabric
- Fire
- Floating Bear, The
- French Literary Review, The
- Frogmore Papers, The
- Global Tapestry
- Grosseteste Review
- Homeless Diamonds
- Interpreter's House, The
- Iota
- Journal, The
- Lamport Court
- London Magazine, The
- Magma
- Matchbox
- Matter
- Modern Poetry in Translation
- Monkey Kettle
- Moodswing
- Neon Highway
- New Welsh Review
- North, The
- Oasis
- Obsessed with pipework
- Orbis
- Oxford Poetry
- Painted, spoken
- Paper, The
- Pen Pusher Magazine
- Poetry Cornwall
- Poetry London
- Poetry London (1951)
- Poetry Nation
- Poetry Review, The
- Poetry Salzburg Review
- Poetry Scotland
- Poetry Wales
- Private Tutor
- Purple Patch
- Quarto
- Rain Dog
- Reach Poetry
- Review, The
- Rialto, The
- Second Aeon
- Seventh Quarry, The
- Shearsman
- Smiths Knoll
- Smoke
- South
- Staple
- Strange Faeces
- Tabla Book of New Verse, The
- Thumbscrew
- Tolling Elves
- Ugly Tree, The
- Weyfarers
- Wolf, The
- Yellow Crane, The