Susan Slaviero is also the author of An Introduction to the Archetypes (Shadowbox Press)
from Apocrypha
a dream of burial at Via Nomentana
January 21, 1957. Agnes wakes
to icy floors, exhales
vapor from her lips. Last
night, she sewed an altar
cloth, dreamt of Roman
boys burned blind by gusts
of sand, by visions of black
lambs and white, tender
thighs. Her mother burns
incense on formica
countertops, slices hearts
of palm, something
red, her spine bent beneath
a green shirtwaist. Agnes
offers her a cheek, rubs
salt into a paper cut,
makes the sign
of the cross inside
the kitchen
doorframe, her
bracelets clanking
like broken fetters.