Investigation of the Unconfirmed Miracles at Puraquequara, and: For the Glory

Investigation of the Unconfirmed Miracles at Puraquequara

First came reports of a leprous childwho touched the shrunken hand and was healed.A barren woman pressed it to her womband conceived. Other claims followed—a manioc crop flourished when a farmer dancedwith the hand over his field, a priest cast outa possessed boy’s demon when he usedone of the fingers to make the sign of the crosson the boy’s body. Whenever a believer paraded itdown church aisles, the square holes in Christ’s wristsclosed. The man who discovered the shrunken fistin the mouth of a dead jaguar said his manhooddoubled in size. The city waited so long for a miracle,and it was finally here, enriching the poor,emboldening the meek. So when people caught ittrying to escape the reliquary, they thoughtthey had no choice but to leash it to the altar.That’s when the manioc crop moldedand the woman gave birth to a stillborn childwith flippers for feet and eyes like small black planets.Demons returned to the boy’s body and he shookso hard he struck his head on a rock and died.When the hunter went mad and strangled his wife,people were relieved. They knew what to do.They paraded him to the city square where he wept—Where’s my wife?—as the priest prayed—Deliver us— and the crowd shouted—Thief!—until his bodystopped swaying and they cut off his hands.Startled pigeons roosting on the church rooftook flight when they heard the clapping.

For the Glory

He’d never made love to his wife’s unbaptized body,so when she gave birth, he dug a hole and set the child

in her grave. She smiled at him with pointed teeth,so he let her live. Sometimes he told himself he stayed

in the jungle for the glory of God, even though he’d neverconverted anyone. He told his wife her daughter was dead,

but he returned to hum hymns to the black-eyed girl and fedher raw fish and milk. He sang for the glory, wrote sermons

for the glory, resisted his wife’s sinful flesh for the glory,o unbearable rib. One night, he forgot to cover the hole,

and a jaguar ate the girl’s left hand. Binding the stumpat her wrist, he touched the tender points of her new breasts

with his thumbs. O heavenly dark rendered in a woman’s body.He woke and found the grave empty. His wife said she was ready

to serve a god instead of a man. It wasn’t easier, but it woulddie for you more happily. O ungovernable blood. She heard

the gossip about a wild girl stealing from fishermen’s nets.She lied for the story, did time for the story, preferred the rumor

to the truth. It promised the dead make a new life carving elegiesinto trees. Not a god’s afterlife but a daughter’s. The butterfly

she buried returned three days later as a poem engraved ona strangler fig. O miracle. O mystery. O hopeful stab of joy.