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Woman Singing in Church
She is not beautiful.
Is not, in fact, much of any one thing.
Only slightly awkward, slightly heavy,
somewhat made up. But when she releases
her voice, a fierce, wild thing,
we are pummeled by it, laid open
on the blade of its loveliness.
The woman seems also to suffer,
as if her voice is an affliction
she cannot escape. Singing,
she has the look of a laboring woman
who grimaces as the miracle tears
through her. Astonished, she gazes
toward Heaven as if to see
who put this writhing, keening
song in her. Her face shines,
like Christ’s face on the cross,
anguished and enraptured,
as His life poured out of Him in a rush,
the gleaming life
His body could not contain.
~ Francesca Bell
first appeared in North American Review
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