stoned woman
bleeds from her head
inside my head: she is
dead, but still breathing
still bleeding—

if I wail, her misery
will lacerate
my onionskin unwillingness—

can I fail to bear
witness?

within bone, stoned
woman is liquescent: I am
her vessel, she
my method—

drip, drip, drip, drip . . .

hook out our eyes: pour us
over bloodstone
along your parched riverbed—

stoned women will ocean
stoned women will rain.

Jude Marr is a PhD candidate with a concentration in creative writing at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette. Her poetry has appeared in The Cortland Review, Black Heart Magazine, and Cherry Tree among others, and she is poetry editor for the online journal r.kv.ry. Her chapbook, Breakfast For the Birds, will be forthcoming from Finishing Line Press in 2017.