The doctor asks where it hurts.
With the tip of a borrowed pen you trace the absent rib,
that Biblical scar, tickle the edge
of the raised ridge, a vacant dune between
land and sea just below your left breast—
like asking where pleasure starts,
where whiskey settles, when you first knew
his hand in your heart.https://digitalcommons.butler.edu/onearth/1032/thumbnail.jp

Murray, Victoria Bosch

Digital Commons @ Butler University

Butler UniversityDigital Commons @ Butler UniversityOn Earth As It Is1-1-2011Three PoemsVictoria Bosch MurrayFollow this and additional works at: http://digitalcommons.butler.edu/onearthPart of the Creative Writing Commons, and the Religion CommonsThis Book is brought to you for free and open access by Digital Commons @ Butler University. It has been accepted for inclusion in On Earth As It Is byan authorized administrator of Digital Commons @ Butler University. For more information, please contact fgaede@butler.edu.Recommended CitationMurray, Victoria Bosch, "Three Poems" (2011). On Earth As It Is. Book 50.http://digitalcommons.butler.edu/onearth/50HOMEABOUTAUTHORSCONTACTon earth as it isprayer as story, story as prayer   photo by matthew simmons Three PoemsVictoria Bosch MurrayPRAYER TO PAINThe doctor asks where it hurts.With the tip of a borrowed pen you trace the absent rib,that Biblical scar, tickle the edge of the raised ridge, a vacant dune betweenland and sea just below your left breast—like asking where pleasure starts,where whiskey settles, when you first knewhis hand in your heart. PRAYER FOR STOLEN STUFFThe chain saw and the fly rod. The coverallsfrom clean laundry left in back of the Fordsutured with your name in pink above the right pocket. A Platinum Master Cardduring a transaction in front of your kidsand a security camera. (It’s how you got it back.)The cost of a rebuilt engine. Your pension.Your sound sleep. Your wife’s heart. PRAYER TO FAITHFULNESSWhen you drive downtown in search of him, try to remember how he looksin jeans; what he wore when last seen(that mustard-stained sweatshirt?); what is missingfrom his things; why he left his keys.When you call the hospital, the morgue,the cops—"I'm sorry, ma'am"—you know he's gone, not where; nor why he left. Victoria Bosch Murray's poetry has appeared in American Poetry Journal, Field, Harvard DivinityBulletin, Inch, Salamander, Tar River Poetry, The Cortland Review, and elsewhere. Her chapbook ofpoems, On the Hood of Someone Else’s Car, was published by Finishing Line Press in 2010. She is acontributing editor at Salamander and teaches writing and literature at Stonehill College near Boston,Massachusetts. She has an MFA in poetry from Warren Wilson College.<---Next Previous--->   Copyright © 2010 by On Earth As It Is.

Three Poems

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Three Poems

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