Judy Brackett

FROM “THE INNOCENTS”

Remember the innocents:
the lambs, goats, babies, virgins,
burned or stoned or starved
to bring an end to plagues,
pestilence, locust hordes,
to bring the rains, to stop the rains.
Their appeasing blood,
their charred and ruined flesh
will save the rest of us,
will save the world.

Judy Brackett lives in a small town in the California foothills of the northern Sierra Nevada. Her poems have appeared in California Fire & Water, Epoch, The Maine Review, Commonweal, Midwest Review, The Midwest Quarterly, Subtropics, Cultural Weekly, Crab Orchard Review, and elsewhere. She is a member of The Community of Writers. Her poetry chapbook, Flat Water: Nebraska Poems, was published by Finishing Line Press in 2019.