“Disturbing Church” by marilyn letts
Poetry Pause is the League of Canadian Poets’ daily poetry dispatch. Read “Disturbing Church” by marilyn letts.
Disturbing Church
By marilyn letts
Little Rose hears about Judasโs betrayal and Peterโs denial,
instead of listening to โHey Judeโ and โPeter Cottontail.โ
She perches on her seat
obediently quiet, occupied,
sketching with wax crayons.
If you had been there
you might have said,
Tell me about your drawing.
Rose would have shown you red robins
building nests in green trees
instead of a man dripping
blood on a cross.
Rose would have told you
In the nest
the robins will put blue eggs,
thenโbaby robins!
Her voice would have struck
sunlight
through the sombre service.
Copyright ยฉ marilyn letts
Previously published in emerge 23, The Writer’s Studio Anthology 2023, SFU.
Marilyn Letts is making up for a misspent youth of quiet compliance. Her poetry publications include FreeFall Magazine, Feathertale Review, Other Voices and Queenโs Quarterly. In January 2026 she had three poems published by JLRB Press in Becoming: An Anthology of What-if Poems About Women and Womanhood. She lives with gratitude on the traditional territories of the peoples of the Treaty 7 region and the Mรฉtis Nation within Alberta in Calgary. www.mletts.ca
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