CHRISTINA ROSSETTI – The Garnered Blood
The spinster sister lay in the library
Throat engorged with pus
Coughing and writing as
The party raged around her
She wrote of goblins and harebells and
Withheld grace. She had
Good reason to complain
Of harsh treatment from her lover
He who turned away his face
No matter how she strove to please him.
That was why she burned
The story of the man who escaped
His own reflection?
“Suck me, eat me, love me”
she wrote; yet He refused
the smallest taste.
How’s that fair when she
Had eaten wheatfields of His flesh;
Tasted oceans of His blood?
“Thy will be done.”
Face to the wall she died
In fear of Hell; shriven but
Unsavored.
Alysse Aallyn 