MARY MAGDALENE: APOSTLE

I'm no prostitute, nor ever was.
No come-on loitering in dark
door ways, hand on hip,
skirt slightly hoisted,

inviting Jacobs into bed:
four drachmas up-front
for spasms they'll not forget.
Whatever the testosterone scribblers

write, I'm not a sack of wild
seeds for the sowing; rather, with Joanna,
Susanna, and other women,
a disciple walking at his side

over lush grassy Galilean hills,
speaking kingdom to the people.
My devils, seven Beelzebuls
to be exact, rummaging among

my modest ruins in the noonday sun,
until he cast them out with, "Go"-
leaving me with an everlasting
hunger in my everlasting need.

- Fr. Kilian McDonnell osb (2008)