Dana McKenna & Ben Clark
Tell me again
about the convent
and the seven women
with heads wrapped
in silk scarves,
who for hours, you watched
pray beneath the shelter
of overhanging branches,
how you saw each woman
burdened by the shadows
of limbs, marked
with fractured
light, and yet,
they seemed to be,
of any bodies
you’d ever seen, the most
weightless.
I’ve heard this story
before, and hold
my breath each time,
as you pause
outside an
unfamiliar fence,
and for at least
one more day,
decide you won’t go
through with it.
Dana McKenna and Ben Clark live, work, and write in Chicago, Illinois.
Return to September 2019 Edition
about the convent
and the seven women
with heads wrapped
in silk scarves,
who for hours, you watched
pray beneath the shelter
of overhanging branches,
how you saw each woman
burdened by the shadows
of limbs, marked
with fractured
light, and yet,
they seemed to be,
of any bodies
you’d ever seen, the most
weightless.
I’ve heard this story
before, and hold
my breath each time,
as you pause
outside an
unfamiliar fence,
and for at least
one more day,
decide you won’t go
through with it.
Dana McKenna and Ben Clark live, work, and write in Chicago, Illinois.
Return to September 2019 Edition