“A Hagiography,” by Kerrin McCadden (Poetry ’14)

Kerrin McCadden‘s poem “A Hagiography” recently appeared in Love’s Executive Order. Read an excerpt below:

A Hagiography

“Heads will roll, we say when shit gets bad, 

but they don’t anymore—no more Saint Alban, 

his head rolling downhill into a well, the water 

turning holy. No more Saint Eluned, her head 

rolling downhill into a stone from which springs 

a healing well. Ditto Saint Winifride, beheaded 

by a suitor who wants her, but she loves God, 

her head rolling downhill, up springing a healing well 

where it stops—but swift Uncle Saint Beuno 

reattaching her head—but still, she was ready 

to die. Where was Saint Denis going when he walked 

downhill into Paris, holding his head in his hands?…”

Kerrin also recently had poems in Ploughshares and American Poetry Review. You can read the rest of “Hagiography” here: https://www.lovesexecutiveorder.com/kerrin-mccadden-1