Hannah Dow
What I Didn’t Know at 23
When he came along preaching
all the good news he could
deliver me, I said yes
to his leather saddlebags
and yes to his Blessed Virgin
tattoo. I said yes to his dark
wine and his clever tongue.
I was taught to pray
for my enemies long before
I had any notion of one,
so when he came along
I didn’t recognize the difference
between a coiled snake and a halo.
I was never taught to pray
for useful things—how to stop
a man from driving you drunk,
licking all the sweetness from
your mouth, or promising diamonds
when your hands are full of glass.
Hannah Dow is the author of Rosarium (Acre Books). Her poems have recently appeared in Shenandoah, Image, The Southern Review, Pleiades, and The Cincinnati Review, among others. She received the Cream City Review Summer Prize in Poetry, selected by Aimee Nezhukumatathil. Hannah resides in Northwest Arkansas and is an Assistant Professor of English and Creative Writing at Missouri Southern State University.