I heard Alicia Ostriker read this at AWP and longed for the the line/stanza breaks. (I took it down in shorthand--does anyone even use those hooks and crooks anymore?) I was glad to find it at Coal Hill Review, where one can also find other fabulous poems, and it's serendipity that the red tulips are blooming in my front yard today.
THE BLESSING OF THE OLD WOMAN, THE TULIP AND THE DOG--Alicia Ostriker
To be blessed
said the old woman
is to live and work
so hard
God’s love
washes right through you
like milk through a cow
To be blessed
said the dark red tulip
is to knock their eyes out
with the slug of lust
implied by
your up-ended
skirt
To be blessed
said the dog
is to have a pinch
of God
inside you
and all the other dogs
can smell it
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