A Reading of Revelation
by Devon Balwit
after Flannery O’Connor
Turpin from turpitude, perhaps, though the Mrs. was shocked
to be shown so, always having done right
by those she secretly considered inferior—white
or black!—aiding any soul who knocked.
She thanked Jesus for making her exactly as good
as she was. And the nightly game she played
of would she rather be born this way or that
was merely a means to arrive at teary gratitude.
That it turned out to be complacency—a theology
of works over grace that won but a clunk
on the skull and the epithet hell-pig—irked
her. Who do you think you are? she scolded the Deity.
Of course, the Lord’s cryptic reply was a blood-
red sun swaddling the night wood.
Devon Balwit walks in all weather. Her most recent collections are Rubbing Shoulders with the Greats (Seven Kitchens Press 2020) and Dog-Walking in the Shadow of Pyongyang (Nixes Mate Books, 2021). For more of her poems and reviews, please visit https://pelapdx.wixsite.com/devonbalwitpoet.
