(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.
By Rhonda Rosenheck
Rhonda Rosenheck’s poetry is inspired by ancient texts, nature, and human complexities. She won a NYSCA grant for Thriving: An Anthology (ed., 2024) and authored The Five Books of Limericks, Looking, and Yiddische Yoga: OYsanas for Every Generation (humor). Her poems have appeared in magazines, journals and anthologies; one was performed at Cooperstown, NY’s Glimmerglobe Theater. Rhonda was a featured poet in Judith Magazine. She has been featured at readings in MA and in Upstate NY. She participated in the Colrain Manuscript Conference and in juried residencies at the Fish Factory Arts Centre (Iceland) and Prospect Street Writers House (Vermont).
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