I still hear him shout the word
see his jagged teeth and crazy eyes
feel his hard arms, our jarring swoop,
the arc we cut through air
rope-riding back from scaffold
to Cathedral of Our Lady
he the ugly, I the lovely
swinging through the laughing
crowd of high and low
that watched him pound up stairs
hold my outstretched body
high above his head
a trophy
in a pale linen shift
My eyes demurely closed
on every sinner in the square
I was only acting
pretending to be the girl
Inside I was exulting
two outcasts had escaped
and I don’t remember what happened
after the shot
only the crew touching
his padded hump for luck
that year when as now
rescue was everything
Catherine Gonick has published poetry in journals including The New Verse News, Beltway Poetry Quarterly, Pedestal, and The Orchards Poetry Journal. Her work has also appeared in anthologies including in plein air, Grabbed, Support Ukraine, and Rumors, Secrets & Lies: Poems About Pregnancy, Abortion and Choice. She has a book of poetry forthcoming from Sheila-Na-Gig Editions and lives in the Hudson Valley where she works in a company devoted to slowing the rate of global warming.
