ABOUT BONNIE LYONS

Bonnie Lyons' chapbook Hineni was published by Finishing Line Press in 2003. Her poems, articles and interviews have appeared in a wide variety of lliterary and scholarly journals, including The Paris Review, Contemporary Literature and Shenandoah. She is the author of Henry Roth: The Man and His Work and co-author of Passion and Craft, interviews with fiction writers. Lyons teaches at the University of Texas at San Antonio.

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ISBN: 1-931247-15-3

"Bonnie Lyons' first full-length collection of poetry pulses with “the terrible questions” that plague the often unnamed, unvoiced women of the Bible. From the searing rage of Tamar to the patient insight of Rizpah, from Jezebel's ferocious warning to Jael's painful revelation, these forceful revisionary versions of Biblical episodes offer us a series of dramatic monologues that build, fortissimo, to a resounding chorus.
—Wendy Barker, author of Way of Whiteness

Ribbons (Exodus 2)

Every mother thinks
her child is perfect, but this
boy was so flawless that I
sometimes felt that God—
delighted with my creation.

I knew I could not hide him forever,
so when he was a sturdy three months
I fashioned a boat for him
out of papyrus loamed with pitch,
and I covered it with bright ribbons
to catch her eye. I had carried him
nine long months, and now I needed
this little ark to carry him
for a few moments more.

All I could do was pray
she would see him
with the eyes of a woman
not an Egyptian,
that even after many years
with her, and them,
he would remain a Hebrew son.
My son.

Copyright © Pecan Grove Press,
1997-2003
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November 11, 2003