Flutter

Corporal Mortification                                             

 “Put to death what is earthly in you.”

                                                            -Colossians 3:5

 I will weave you into me, wear you
like a cilice, slicing 

into my fleshy inner thigh.  

Stay you whisper, such a small word.
Barbed, a rusty hook.  

Your eyes, at least, are lighter
than the night. Italian nuns braid hemp  

into religious discipline.
Pray with me,  

pierce my most tender skin.   

The wall behind your shoulder only lacks
a stern crucified Christ, whipped 

into indignation at such sin. Your skin
is dark as a new bruise beneath 

my fingernails. You, darling,
my patron saint of pain. 

Dig out the black clotted earthly in me.
Bleed me somehow pure.  

Flay me to the clean
white bone.

~ Rachel Custer's work has been previously published in Prick of the Spindle and Analecta.