~This poem was first published
in Slant (2000).
Lot's Wife
Even
the woman
who
was never beautiful
is
grateful when
after
chemotherapy
her
hair returns,
spiky
little flames.
For a
month or two
she
spins,
French
waif
catching
herself
in
the sun’s eye,
who
was she?
So
why do we blame
the
salt woman
who
wanted to see
not
where she had been
but
what?
Gomorrah.
Everything
lies
in
the season
we do
not understand.
These
are the pictures
of
what we were,
lovelier
than we imagined.
Even
our children are amazed.
*****
THE STORY BEHIND THE POEM
Perhaps
because my father was a Lutheran pastor who read Bible stories and parables to
our little family before breakfast and after dinner every day, I’ve been
arguing with traditional myths and parables most of my life. Even as a child I
thought the punishment to Lot’s wife was unjust. According to Genesis, the poor
woman disobeyed God by turning around to see her home going up in flames and
was immediately turned into a pillar of salt.
I began this poem after seeing a friend with cancer regrow their
hair. The poem started with that image,
and then in walked Lot’s wife. How human, to think about the past. As a poet, I
am often Lot’s wife, turning to see what happened, what made a noise behind me? Orpheus seems to have made the same mistake.
*****
ABOUT LOIS MARIE HARROD
Lois Marie Harrod’s 13th and 14th poetry collections, Fragments
from the Biography of Nemesis (Cherry Grove Press) and the chapbook How Marlene Mae Longs for Truth (Dancing
Girl Press) appeared in 2013. The Only Is won the 2012 Tennessee Chapbook
Contest (Poems & Plays), and Brief Term, a collection of poems about
teachers and teaching was published by Black Buzzard Press, 2011. Cosmogony won the 2010 Hazel Lipa
Chapbook (Iowa State). She is widely
published in literary journals and online ezines from American Poetry Review to Zone
3. She teaches Creative Writing at The College of New Jersey. Read her work
on www.loismarieharrod.org.
I always thought she got a bum deal!
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