A Literary Magazine in Support of the Jewish Community
I Don’t Have to Be Holy to Be Saved
Inspired by the painting “Crisis of Faith” by Marisa Takal (2021)
A torso with dead branches
rises against the backdrop
of elongated opal moon
God plays the cello just beyond the gate.
We dip our fingers
in bright magenta circles,
leave fruit on the ground as offering
Tobacco smoke rises.
I scratch the night’s palette
with long yellow fingernails,
fill the spaces where I left my doubt
The ground is safe.
A fringed shawl covers the body,
warms the bruise
where the humble bottle empties
A hole is portal to the inviolate hum.
I pour water from pitcher to basin,
let the cloud of warm water
erase me like a flood
I don’t have to be holy to be saved.
Susan Michele Coronel
A two-time Pushcart nominee, Susan Michele Coronel has had poems published in numerous journals including Mom Egg Review, Redivider, One Art, and Sheila-Na-Gig. Her first full-length collection, In the Needle, A Woman, won the 2024 Donna Wolf Palacio Poetry Prize and is forthcoming this summer.
