Vicki Goodfellow Duke
About this Christian Poet:
The story of Mary Magdalen gives hope to every person. She is the greatest of sinners, yet the first to see Jesus after His resurrection; she is the model of humility and a sinner's lesson in love. In this poem, I wanted to explore the Magdalen in each of us, the challenge that faith poses to our limited human understanding, and how, in our abandonment, God's mercy transcends it all.
Vicki Goodfellow Duke lives in Calgary. She is the First Place Winner of the 2005 Ray Burrell Award (co-winner). Her poetry has recently appeared in Prairie Poetry: An American Journal, and Poetry on the Way—poems featured on subways and buses in Central and Eastern Canada. She currently homeschools her 4 young children.
To Mary Magdalen,
with thanks
savior of pretty girls
slammed into doors
bloodied by steel-toed
boots,
tripping in heels
through the night
retching
memory
into drains
hiding
to scrub filth
from split lips,
certain still, their souls
are unbroken,
(these are the fortunate)
safe from pills
stashed in pockets
they've heard the truth—
love covers a multitude of sins
and there's been plenty
of lovin'
no sense to kill yourself
when you may be redeemed
by tears,
letting down your hair
is easy,
the hardest thing,
to believe there's deliverance
at the feet of a man
Copyright ©2005 by Vicki Goodfellow Duke