pioneertown.

She eats the Bible,
literally swallows scripture.
You might find her
on Boston Common,
making a meal of miracles,
or lingering in book stores,
eyeing certain shelves
like a dessert menu.

For over a decade,
she’s been digesting psalms,
gospels, and prophecies,
consuming the whole canon
from Adam to anti-Christ –
a limitless buffet
of fish and loaves.

She keeps it close,
this eccentric sacrament,
has even had her dentist
tuck tiny verses
under a pair of crowns –
text too small to read,
though she knows it’s there
in the back of her mouth.

“Page after page” she says
“for the salvation of your soul,
page after page
for the love of god to come
into your heart."
Devoted to devouring,
he calls these morsels
her life’s work.

As she dishes up another
serving of verses, I imagine
how the flavor varies
from passage to passage,
how the passion compares,
in terms of taste,
with the plague of boils.