Testimony, and: Testimony
Rent from DeepDyve- Testimony, and: Testimony
Testimony
Hour Twenty-Seven: In Which the Witch Describeth the Process of Copulation with Devils in the Form of an Honourable Gentleman
Yes I imagined my body thrust against the circle of ice my spread skirts made yes I imagined this as a lid settled over
a lake yes I imagined the depths, stilled fish hung as souls hang blue in heaven confused by the cold yes his fingers
were five points of snow left red furrows on the white field of my flesh the barn doors a mouth and gaping yes I did see sky fine azure line laid over his fields yes the corn
husks whispered their obscene rumors yes I kept my eyes on his eyes so he would see himself in me studied the color of cardamom and changing weather yes cats cried
in the corner like children playing or else children cried in the corner like cats yes I cried many times your wife your wife yes my ears held the sound her skirts made [End Page 67]
no I did not struggle who would it do any good yes the cattle lowered themselves to the fields a drained color not quite green his eyes No his eyes
never held mine he fastened them on the pine stall against which my skull made the song of the pestle against a seed pod yes I understand the severity of charges I understand of all things severity no I wished
no rain by dogbone by crossroads by pissing in riverbed Yes I imagined his eyes were the eyes that hide under our lids while we sleep yes the wood with each thrust sent its splinters further my flesh was closer to blood than flesh yes I did think
of dovetails I did violet see I held for a while the thought of sun heavy as nougat no his tongue was not sweet yes I ran
down the field when it was done the grass died under my feet yes I burned the bloodied skirts yes I locked the tears at home tell me who would they do any good [End Page 68]
Testimony
Hour Forty-Six: In Which the Witch Revealeth the Various Shapes That Satan Hath Possessed
A man of scoured grease wool a man of mink oiledleather a man of swallowed flax a man of woad
and madder trade a man of blood absolvedby burdock a man who bade me knot red thread
against past lovers' beds a man who makes impossiblequestions a man who asks for heresy the beast who rustles
shrub in hidden hunger the beast who bearshis bloodstained teeth the goat's teeth tearing
currants from their clusters the veinswhich lay like weary ghosts haunting skin
and surface the blade which punishedfield for giving of its grain the field itself forced
by its nature to answer blade with opulence hempand buckwheat's flowered eyes the slaughtered sheep's
tongue tasting sky the brute testimony of bared thighsa man of steady thumb against the grind
of knife the bell of the hare's body hollowed hearta sere clapper a man of fingers blessed on altar
a man of paten pall and burse the seed that burstfrom Adam's mouth a man only man beneath amice
a man who deals in lips and nails a man whomakes you love him the God who burns you [End Page 69]
Emma Bolden is the author of How to Recognize a Lady, a chapbook published as part of Edge by Edge, the third volume in Toadlily Press's Quartet Series. Her second chapbook, The Mariner's Wife, was published by Finishing Line Press, and a third, The Sad Epistles, was published by Dancing Girl Press. Her work has appeared in or is forthcoming from the Indiana Review, Feminist Studies, Verse, and Cimarron Review, among others.
