Mary, the heavenly ostrich  


  
     Mary, named after the mother of Christ,  
     didn't wear panties to  
     grade school; she liked the feeling  
     of cold winds sweeping under  
     her skirts.  She did wear one thing,  
     though, a beret: color of winter fruit, a  
     grimy magenta, pressed; the wax  
     smeared by dirty playhands in  
     recess.  The priest (an elderly, 
     spindly man of seventy-four) said, 
     "Mary!  Your legs remind me of an  
     ostrich."  The next several years,  
     Mary hid her head deep in swing-set  
     sand, the winds blowing under her skirts,  
     irregardless of the magenta blood,  
     dripping.



     --jennifer crystal chien