Dorianne Laux

Lacuna

The Gnostic gospels say
Jesus often kissed Mary on the...

and then a lacuna in the manuscript.
Why is there a hole

right there—a rip, a tear, a split—rendering
unreadable that only and particular word?

Was it, once again, the censoring human hand?
A father's smoky jealousy. A brother's ashen fear.
Sex between the blessed some scribe's idea
of defilement. Instead of what it might have been

or was: a flick of ancient tongues, desert dust
rubbed from one another’s feet, sandal straps

having left their sturdy sunless marks, pale
crosses fallen over each aching arch,

the shadowy undersides become cathedrals
of wrinkling flesh as they curled their holy toes.

I believe Jesus often kissed Mary on those.

Dorianne Laux is the author of three books of poetry from BOA Editions: Awake, What We Carry, and Smoke. She is also co-author with Kim Addonizio of The Poet's Companion: A Guide to the Pleasures of Writing Poetry (W. W. Norton). Her work has received two NEA Grants and a Guggenheim Fellowship. Her fourth book of poems, Facts About the Moon, was published in 2005 by W. W. Norton.