While you uttered prayers
Something entered from the other side
Into a dark place
Within you
A serpent lodged in the bowels
Burning you with fever
Or chilling you
Till you shook

While you intoned softly
A spear from the other side
Opened a space
Within you
That filled with pain
And made you bleed
Rivers of blood

While you clutched at Heaven
You were raped from the other side
You did not yet know
Within you
The strange marriage
Of psalms and thorns
Thorns and psalms.