Pious mouths foam
For measurements.
The afflicted, always
Some woman. Ill-fated poppet.
Aproned, but odd.
How different is any one of us
When fallen quiet or despised?
Or alone.
Our hearts all hearth-blackened
Pots, sometimes. Loveless.
Dark. Stew-crooked
Over the hot stove.
Roiling Christ bath
Of yellow child
Piddle mixed to one
Heaping cup of sour flour.
To punish evil, who will pay
The Devil back
By his own
Dour voodoo?
By spellcaster slop. Conjurer
Of fungae
Hallucinogens. Conjurer
Of false prophets.
White accusal rises up
The town mutt’s
Gobbledy throat.
One goody bark
Curses goo from biscuit
Ghosts. Holy God
Of justice. God of invisibles.
God of rye dust and noose loops.
Tammy Robacker won the 2016 Keystone Chapbook Prize for her manuscript, “R.” Her second poetry book “Villain Songs” is forthcoming with ELJ Publications in 2016. Tammy published her first collection, “The Vicissitudes,” in 2009 (Pearle Publications). Currently enrolled in the Rainier Writing Workshop MFA program in Creative Writing at Pacific Lutheran University, Tammy lives in Oregon.