Erica Minton

TESTAMENT

She tears a page from the Bible
every time she loses faith

in boys: when she’s stood up,
when she’s knocked down,

if he’s too much like her brother
or not enough like her father.

She hides his name on the page,
small and between the margins,

careful never to let the ink touch
the name of an angel. Once,

she kept the pages as souvenirs.
Now she mails them to strangers.

No one misses the family Bible,
even during a miserable Christmas.

She tries to ignore the faults
in the new boys she brings home.

God stopped talking years ago
and she is running out of pages.