Susan McLean

Magdalene with Skull


The flesh has let me down. But bones are true.
A hard truth that has led me near despair
for deeds that you deplore. You know you do.

You picture me disheveled, pale, half-bare,
remorseful for my sinning ways cut short,
twined in luxuriant swaths of shining hair.

A pinup for repentance. Of a sort.
For private contemplation when alone.
My mute friend doesn't cavil or exhort,

keeping the welcome reticence of bone.
Your flesh will let you down. But bones are true.
And yours now tell you what you've always known:
the deeds that you deplore you know you do.

Susan McLean, a retired English professor from Southwest Minnesota State University, has published two poetry collections, The Best Disguise and The Whetstone Misses the Knife, and one book of translations of Latin poems by Martial, Selected Epigrams. Her third poetry book, Daylight Losing Time, is forthcoming from Able Muse Press.