from Book of Days (work in progress)

Perpetua and Felicity: Young Christian Mothers.

They would bear the lions

for the sake of their faith, leave their babes to heathen

rather than renounce their god.

As an old heathen mother I can see their point still

the theory that example setting is more powerful than actual existence

the theory that precedes children raised by servants, like Felicity,

had her head not also come off;

because the dead bear a powerful influence,

the dead can raise their children

staring down from the wall, so sad and accusatory

as accusatorily as any living child.