Marla Cordle
Memory of Church
Those days piled up like Leaves raked into neat mounds Of Sundays Most of them with Me in panty hose, tight around the middle My back a protest against The church pew And girls, we were girls Tracing pencils around fingers Listening to Psalms While my mother looked On Her face atypically placid My youth: Jesus walking on water The flies in the windowsills And the boy catching them Pulling the wings off: A crime within the context of a sermon I carry these leaves in the pocket of my mind In a memory Of a Bible with onion-skinned pages
Marla Cordle is the author of two novels, Breach of Trust and Silencing Sarah, both endorsed by New York Times bestselling authors. Her poetry and essays have been published in various literary journals. She also does occasional freelance work for Women on Writing.
